


The Property of Red

by thefuckistevvs



Series: The Property of Red [1]
Category: Maggot Boy
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe where Peej is the one that dies, Blood, M/M, homophobic slur in chapter 3, i dont know i just felt like torturing myself, sadfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-24
Updated: 2014-09-14
Packaged: 2018-02-14 11:25:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 14
Words: 35,317
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2189877
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thefuckistevvs/pseuds/thefuckistevvs
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For a split second, he saw the lights of a truck, inches from his face.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Red

**Author's Note:**

> Alternate Universe where PJ died by being hit by a truck instead of Davey. Mostly just sibling interaction and teenager awkwardness and sadness.

“Hey Parker, think fast!”

“What-“

The young teenager looked up for a fraction of second before being smacked on the face with a soccer ball his brother threw at him, knocking the brunette to his butt.

“Dude, you were supposed to catch it with your hands! Not face!”

Davey quickly approached his young brother to help him stand up, while laughing uncontrollably in the process.

“How will you become a goalie if you can’t catch it with your hands?”

Parker looked at his brother confused, his face still red from the hit.

“What? What makes you think I want to play soccer?”

In exchange, Davey looked at his sibling confused, as if he had never thought of the possibility before.

“You don’t?”

“No!” Parker said, rubbing his face trying to get rid of the numbness. Davey laughed, picking up the ball and heading inside of the house.

“Come on, I’m hungry. We should order some pizza!”

He kicked the ball as hard as he could, it going into a straight line and hitting the fence on the backyard, Parker simply staring at it as it continued to bounce.

 

“What? Mom said-“

“Yeah, yeah, she left stew at the fridge, whatever.” Davey shrugged as he entered the house, his brother following and closing the door of the backyard. The house was empty apart from the two of them, their parents having gone to a really boring family reunion which Davey nor Parker cared about; it was the good thing about being still “just a kid”.

“Look Peej, you gotta live a little! Mom and dad will be too tired from aunt Petunia’s tales they won’t care we didn’t eat boring lamb stew.” Davey threw himself on the couch, grabbing the phone as he started to dial the pizza place.

“Yes? Yeah, can you bring us a family sized pizza? Bacon, onions-“

“Oh, mushrooms!”

“-and mushrooms. Yeah, Cobble street, number 25. Okay then!”

 

Davey hung up the phone, turning the television on, pointing at the screen for his brother to see.

“Hey, Peej, look! The Spider-Man movie!”

Parker was serving himself water from the kitchen, not even turning around to pay closer attention to the screen.

“The one with Tommy or the one with Andrew Garfield?”

“The one with Andrew Garfield!” yelled his brother from his position on the couch.

Without thinking twice, Parker ran to the couch, sitting on it quickly as they both started to watch the movie.

 

“I prefer these ones a lot more, you see.” Parker started to talk as Davey pulled a bag of chips that was hidden under the couch, opening them and offering them to his brother, whom grabbed a bunch as he kept talking.

“I think they are better close to the original. Oh, and Andrew’s butt is really cute.”

Davey threw a pillow to his brother while he laughed, as he muttered “Gross!”, Parker simply laughing as he put his feet up on the living room table.

 

\---

Soda cans were littered around the living room, along with an empty pizza box lying on the living room table. Cartoons were being broadcasted on the television, as the two teenagers laid lazily on the couch, groaning. Davey burped loudly, causing Parker to grimace and make a disgusted face.

“Davey! Gross!”

“Whatever, Peej. I ate like a pig.” Davey threw an empty can on the floor, receiving glares from his brother, Parker knowing he was the one that was going to have to clean around before their parents returned.

“Hey, tomorrow me and the guys are going to go to the skate park.” Davey lazily said as he grabbed a new soda can, opening it. “They are bringing their brothers, and cousins, want to come?”

“Really Davey? Normally you tell me to buzz off and go away whenever I want to go with you and your turf.” Parker took a can as well, opening it before it went warm.

“Oh, shut up. Mom said that if I didn’t take you, I couldn’t come.”

“Oh, I feel important then. What will you have to do for me to go? It is nice to have this sort of power once in a while!” Parker took a drink from his soda.

 

“Bastian is coming.”

 

With what phrase, Parker couldn’t help but spit his drink in surprise. Davey just laughed hysterically as his brother face went red as he rushed into the kitchen to grab towels to clean the mess.

“I take that as a yes!” Davey yelled, still laughing as his brother returned with towels in hand, his face as red as a tomato.

 

\---

“Nice moves, asshole.” Said one of the teenagers as Davey struggled to stand up, having smashed his face against the concrete mere seconds ago by messing up a trick.

“Shut the fuck up!” Davey yelled back, Bastian approaching him to give him a hand, the one which Davey took.

“My grandma makes better moves than that! And she had hip surgery!”

 

Davey flipped the teenager off, rubbing the dirt off his face with his other hand.

“Who gives a shit about your grandma? You think you are so good? Well, you try it Mickey!”

“Fuck off, Jones!” said Mickey, the blonde teenager flipping the brunette off as well.

Davey rolled his eyes, turning his gaze to Parker, who was trying his hardest to not laugh.

 

“Man, Davey, you got the nastiest mouth-“

“You say anything to mom, you are DEAD.” Davey put extra emphasis on the last word, even sliding his index finger through his neck, Bastian simply awkwardly smiling not sure how to react.

 

Bastian turned next to Parker, ticking his skateboard towards the teen, Parker stopping it with his foot. “Hey, Peej, you skate?” said the boy as Davey dusted himself off behind of him.

“Him? Skate? Ha!” Parker’s sibling laughed propping himself on Bastian shoulder while smiling, pointing to his younger sibling.

“A drunk hamster has better balance than him!”

“Davey…!” Embarrassed, Parker got on the skateboard trying to balance himself, succeeding after a couple of seconds.

“O-oh.” Parker said, surprising himself that he managed to stay upright for such a long time, never having skated before.

“This is easier than I-“ before he could finish, Parker fell to the ground on his back, Davey laughing once again at his brother’s misfortune.

 

“You need help?” Bastian said, as he helped Parker stand up, as the latter tried his best to not blush.

“Th-Thanks. I just- I never skated before…” the young brunette said, as kicked the ground with his feet.

“Oh, that’s not good.” Bastian turned around, seeing Davey fighting more with Mickey and the other teenagers at the skate park, angrily pointing at the railings and stairs, as well as making obscene gestures towards them.

“I can teach you, if you want.” Bastian said smiling happily.

Parker felt his stomach go cold, his skin going tense as his eyes widened.

“Oh, that’s not…” He scratched the back of his neck, his lips shaking as he wasn’t sure what to do.

 _Go for it! You’ll never have a chance like this again!_ He thought.

 

He blinked, turning to Bastian with a reassuring smile.

“I would like that, yeah!”

“Alright! But first,” Bastian took off his helmet, putting it on Parker’s head, adjusting it very oblivious of the brunette’s face going red at this action. When finished, he pointed to his skateboard.

“Okay! Let’s try something easy first…”

 

\---

 

“Fucking Mickey, who the fuck invited him?” Davey muttered, grabbing his skateboard and making way to Parker and Bastian, who was trying to teach his younger brother how to not fall into your face every 5 minutes.

“Hey, Bas, what are you doing?”

“Oh Davey! Look!” Parker shouted as he got on the skate, slowly riding it in the concrete.

“Look! Look!”

“Huh, I am amazed, Peej. I thought you were a total idiot, I guess I was a little bit wrong!”

“You are great at this, PJ!” Said Bastian, Parker wasn’t entirely sure if he was just being nice or just legitimately believed he was good at it, since he didn’t do much apart from not falling for a long period of time.

“Y-yeah?! Well, look at this!” Parker said, as he jumped from the board trying to flip it to impress Bastian, however when he landed on the board again instead the table slipped hard from his feet, the teenager falling to his back once again, the helmet preventing his head from hitting hardly.

“Oh, Peej, are you okay?” Bastian said with concern, approaching the teenager.

“Sorry Bastian! Your board-“

“It’s Okay Peej! Don’t-“

“No, no, let me get it!”

 

Parker stood straight up in a leap, running rapidly to where the board was launched to, too embarrassed at the fact that he, once again, messed up in front of Bastian.

 _What an idiot! Now he’ll thing you are an idiot! Which is what you are!_ Parker thought, as he finally spotted the board lying on the middle of the street.

 

“It’s on the street!” Parker yelled to his brother and his crush- his friend, as he made his way down from the park to the street, straight up running towards the board.

He knelt, grabbing the board, as frantic honking from a truck caught his attention.

 

For a split second, he saw the lights of a truck, inches from his face.

 

\---

 

The skateboard was crushed in several pieces, unrecognizable, blood skid-marks on the concrete as well as tire-marks surrounding them. A group of people, from adults to teenagers had gathered around the mess on the middle of the street. A brunette with a red hoodie was screaming at the truck driver, several teenagers having to restrain him from clawing the man’s eyes out.

 

Parker was in the middle of it, he opened his eyes as he saw everything around him and trying to understand the implications of it. He was lying on a pool of something… something red, his hair soaked in it as he realized how thick it was for it to be just water.

It hurt to breath deep, so he just did it raggedly.

One of the teenagers- Bastian, that was his name, right?- took a look straight at him, and he said something to Parker’s sibling, who immediately ran towards his brother side.

It seemed like Davey was too scared of even approaching Parker, as if simply touching him would make his younger brother shatter.

 

“ “

He was saying something, but Parker couldn’t hear anything, feeling warm thick liquid pouring from his ears.

 

“D-D…” Parker tried his hardest to speak, but for some reason couldn’t, as if he hadn’t spoken for several years and was learning to speak once again.

 

“Dav-Davey-Dav…”

 

His older brother covered his mouth with his hands, tears pouring from his face.

 

At that moment, Parker’s world became red.


	2. Burial

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> His eyes widened as he remembered the lights of the truck and lying in a pool of his own blood in the middle of the road.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Parker wakes up from what seems to be a nightmare he cant remember, to realize he is in his own coffin; after escaping, strange men take him to a strange place.

Waking up had been similar from waking up from a nightmare.

He felt like he was drowning, taking a deep sudden breath as if he just came out of the water. Yet, he was completely dry; he felt as if he hadn’t moved in several days, his muscles numb and tired. Taking sudden breaths, the teenager tried to calm down, sure that he just woke up from a nightmare he couldn’t remember yet. Sitting up, he realized that his head crashed with a wooden ceiling, impeding him from completely sitting.

“Huh?” Parker said, touching the wooden ceiling with his hands, running his fingers through it. He tried to roll over, but he noticed that the same wooden material was encasing him, as a cage.

“Davey? Is this a prank?” He yelled out, as he began to slam the wooden ceiling with his palms.

“Davey, stop it! I’ll tell mom! Get me out of here!” he continued to yell, slamming the wood harsher this time.

Nervous, he retreated one of his hands to rub his neck, noticing that he was wearing a tie; confused, the teenager ran his fingers across his collarbone, noticing he was wearing a collar shirt, and not the one from school, it felt more formal, like what he wore at cousin’s Cassidy’s wedding.

His eyes widened as he remembered the lights of the truck and lying in a pool of his own blood in the middle of the road.

 

Parker began to pant, covering his face with his hands as he realized what had happened, that it was not one of Davey’s prank, and that he had been buried, who knows how long ago. He began to cry softly, not sure what to do next. He was in a coffin, _his_ coffin, and Parker didn’t even know if he was alive or not.

He remembered dying, in fact. Now that the memory of the truck resurfaced, he had remembered how all of sudden he stopped feeling in general, how he wasn’t cold anymore, how nothing hurt anymore. As if his entire body went numb and limp at the same time.

 

Panicked, the teenager began slamming his palms as hard as he could on the wooden ceiling, crying out, until after some hitting, the wood broke. Gasping, the teenager continued to slam it, breaking the wood; dirt falling inside of his coffin.

Parker remembered reading somewhere on the internet what to do in this scenario (a scenario he never imagined he would be in), struggling he managed to take off his coat, covering his face with it, and he continued to break the wood. Making a hole wide enough for him to escape through, Parker started his ascension to the living world.

 

\---

 

Parker wasn’t sure how many hours have passed since he started digging. It isn’t like he had any reference, either, but when he finally got out of the ground, it was already dark, the moon shining on his face. He coughed the dirt out, as he sat on the ground rubbing his face trying to come to terms to what had just happened; the teenager reclined his back against something smooth and cold, which he realized was his gravestone after turning around to see what it was.

“ _Parker Jones_

_Loving Son, Brother, Friend”_

Parker couldn’t bear to finish reading what was written in the gravestone, turning around and kneeling, throwing up spit and bile and what seemed like blood on the grass. He coughed it all up, even if there was nothing in his stomach, he continued to throw up spit.

 

“Oh, God…” the brunette sobbed, clutching his stomach, lying next to his grave.

 

\---

 

The harsh light from the ceiling hurt the teenager’s eyes, his head pounding as he just retreated in the corner of the empty, white small room. He had been chained to one of the walls, but the chain was long enough for him to walk a little, however he just decided to retreat to one of the corners, hugging his knees burying his face on them.

 

After being in the cemetery for a couple of hours, strange people came to him with guns pointed at his head, but he put his hands up begging for them to not shoot (would it make a difference? Would it actually kill him?). After begging, they took him with them to a strange institution, locking him in the room he was currently sitting in, one of the walls replaced with a two way mirror. He couldn’t see what was on the other side, but he was very positive there were many people staring at him from the other side.

 

“State your name.” A voice called from the other side of the mirror. Parker didn’t answer, simply burying his face even more between his legs.

“Who are you? Where do you come from?” The voice asked once again, but Parker bit his lip, slightly moving his head from side to side very softly. 

 

Behind the glass, a tall man with grey hair and weak body simply stared at the scared teenager, many scientists standing along with him, staring.

“Sir, we found him on the graveyard. He looks like he is dead, but…”

“But we have never seen anything like this.” One of the other men said. They all were too fixated on the teenager to look at each other while they talked.

“How do we know this isn’t just a teenager with a costume?”

Lazaro stared at the teenager without saying anything; he didn’t say anything since the teenager had been brought into the institution, as he was calculating what to do next. An undead that was aware of its surroundings? He had never heard or seen anything like it, less see it with his own eyes. He had to make sure, however. There was just one way to make sure.

 

Parker felt his stomach growl, every growl his body began to shake more and more, sweating cold as he could only think of one thing: eat. But it was… some different type of hunger. It wasn’t a “I’m going to eat this entire pizza” hunger. It was as if it was clawing at him from the inside, as if it was beginning to change him.

The brunette began to growl softly, baring his teeth, alert to the sound of his own shallow breathing; when the door to the room opened, his head turned immediately to the source of the sound. A tall and very pale man stood before him, silent. He had a bag of… something in one of his hands, but he didn’t say anything, Parker eyeing him from head to toe, thinking of only one thing.

_Food… Food…_

That man was food. That man was _meat_ , and Parker needed his meat to survive, and Parker just accepted that as if it was a fact of life.

 

The teenager leaped trying to reach Lazaro, but the chain on his leg prevented him from reaching Lazaro, but he still kept trying, growling as he tried to reach the man to eat from him, not even questioning what this was.

Lazaro took a look at him, at how this teenager acted exactly like all the zombies he had encountered before, and yet some minutes before, he was acting like a living person.

He opened the bag, and threw it to Parker’s direction.

 

The teenager didn’t hesitate to take the contents of the bag, biting is and gulping it down, eating as if he had never eaten anything in his entire life, and as if it was going to be the last time he would ever eat. It tasted of iron, and it was cold, but for some reason at the moment it was the best thing Parker had tasted in his entire life. It was filling, managing to finally calm down the terrible hunger that lurked from his very soul.

 

Panting, he managed to calm down, sliding to the floor and sitting in an upright position, when he became aware of everything; he looked down to realize that he had been eating a heart.

A human heart.

 

The teenager dropped it, panicking as he covered his mouth with his blood stained hands, smearing it on his face without realizing it. He retreated to his corner, shaking and crying, burying his face between his legs.

“Please! I want to go home! Please! Let me go!” he cried, horrified at what had happened, wanting to puke but for some reason being unable to, afraid that if he did so he would go back to his cannibalistic state.

Lazaro simply stared at the teenager, not even sure if he was shocked or _amazed_ at what had happened. Without a word, he left the room, leaving the teenager to wail on the corner of the room.

 

The scientists that were watching surrounded Lazaro when he came near, leaving their gaze from Parker for the first time ever since he entered the room.

“Sir, are you okay?!”

“Sir, what do we do now? Should we alert the press?”

“Sir, what should we do?”

Lazaro didn’t answer any of his questions, simply staring at the teenager in the small room. His mouth twitched, and he finally spoke.

 

“Tell Marianne to come immediately.


	3. Grief

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Mister Jones?” Miss Randall called. She knew that the brunette was generally a little hard to deal with, but after the accident, his personality has dramatically changed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one has Davey in it. warning for homophobic slur.

_Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing_

“That’s it for today, class, be sure to read chapter 20 from your books for tomorrow… and, uh,” Miss Randall looked around her class, her gaze falling in Davey, who was too preoccupied twiddling a pen between his fingers, his eyes down on his desk.

“…That will be all.”

All the students stood up, beginning to chat amongst themselves , calmly exiting the room, Davey taking his time to stand up, slowly getting his things and making his way to the exit.

“Mister Jones?” Miss Randall called. She knew that the brunette was generally a little hard to deal with, but after the accident (which was no secret to anybody in the school, teachers and students had been informed of it, and even a small memorial was made for the deceased), his personality has dramatically changed.

“…Yeah?” Davey said, turning towards his teacher, but he didn’t lift his head to see her, his gaze on the ground.

“If… If you need something, you can count of the school staff.”

Davey stayed quiet for a while, letting out a “Hmph” as he turned around, going into the hallway. Miss Randall sat in her desk for a while, rubbing her temple.

 

No one had really spoken to Davey after the accident, students and teachers sharing their condolences for him, but he would normally just reply with a quiet “thanks”, or an “Okay”. It was very obvious he didn’t want to speak to no one, and so far people respected that.

The teenager approached his locker, opening it with a squeak, until someone called him out.

“Davey?”

He recognized that voice. Turning around, Davey saw Bastian standing across from him.

 

It was the first time Davey saw Bastian since the funeral, the blonde missing class a couple of more days than Davey. The teenager never questioned it, after all Bastian was there when the accident happened, Davey didn’t question his decision to take some days off, let the news dissolve for a while.

Davey stared at him, not sure what to say, but after a while he simply said “Hey”, returning to putting his books in his locker. The other teenager wasn’t sure what to say either, but words didn’t seem to be necessary; he simply approached the brunette, putting a hand in his shoulder.

He felt Davey’s shoulder tense, only to relax almost immediately. Davey bit his lip, not sure how to react to Bastian’s gentle’s gesture.

 

Ever since the accident, Davey had felt anger that seemed to increase with every passing day, the teenager had been able to contain it, but with every day that passed his fists shook more and more just waiting for an excuse to hit something. When Bastian put his hand on his shoulder, it was the first time in weeks that he felt himself at peace, instead of rage.

 

“Hey, look at the good side,” a voice said from his other side. Surprised, Davey saw one of Parker’s bullies, Alan, a skinny guy with black curly hair; Davey hadn’t seen him since god knows when, he completely forgot about him and his “henchmen” (who were currently standing behind him, smirk on their faces).

He had no idea what Alan was going with this.

“At least you won’t have to worry about that faggot embarrassing you anymore.”

 

Davey hit the teenager’s face with his fist as hard as he could, throwing him to the floor as the rest of the students on the hallway turned and stared, forming a circle between the two of them. Immediately Davey jumped on top of Alan, pinning him to the ground with his torso as he continued to punch Alan’s face with both his fists, baring his teeth and shouting as he did so; Alan friends just jumped back with wide eyes as they saw how the brunette was pummeling their friend, terrified that if they got involved they would get punched as well.

 

“Davey-“

“Get away!”

Full of rage, Davey punched whoever it was that tried to come near him, which he realized too late was Bastian, the blonde stammered and kneeled, clutching his face as his nose began to bleed. Davey eyes widened as he stared at his friend, then at his bloodied fists, and back to the teenager that was whimpering on the floor with a burst lip and black eye.

“I, Bastian, I-“

“Jeremiah Jones!”

 

Miss Randall made her way to Davey, shoving the students out of the way, facing the teenager as she saw what had happened.

“Miss, I-“

“Mister Nightingale, I’ll talk to you later. You, to the nurse,” she said as she pointed to Alan, who as soon as Davey stood up he scurried away running towards the nurse’s office, his friends tagging with him. “As for you, come with me.” She finally said, pointing to Davey.

Huffing, the teenager stared at the crowd, slowly going to Miss Randall’s side, silently following her while his gaze jumped from place to place, a million thoughts passing through his mind.

They reached the outside of the principal’s office but before she opened the door, Miss Randall sadly stared at the sweaty teenager in front of her.

“…When my sister died, it was very difficult.”

Davey lifted his eyes, intently staring at the teacher.

 

“Everybody told me that-that I should get over it and that I should move on.”

She looked at Davey with eyes that were intense, and yet understanding.

“I know it is difficult, Jeremiah. We, as an institution, are here to help you. You must understand, however, that we cannot let that conduct to happen again. I am sorry for doing this, but it is necessary. “

Davey returned his gaze to the floor, blurting a quiet “yes”.

Miss Randall nodded, entering the principal’s office with Davey in tow.

 

\---

 

After his parents met with the principal, the Principal told Davey that he needed private time to talk with his parents, Davey silently obeying as he exited the room without a word.

Sitting in the hallway was too much for him, he couldn’t stay still. Davey felt as his bones were shaking, as if his muscles were twitching, he needed to run.

And so he did. He had no idea where he was going to, but he didn’t care. Everything was like a blur, the lockers and the doors in the school moved and twisted as he walked around, his breathing becoming harsh and his head buzzing.

The teenager reached the boy’s bathrooms, entering it with a slam, as he locked himself in; there was no one but himself inside but he didn’t even notice, pacing around the room moving his head from side to side as he continued to pant.

 

The teenager suddenly stopped, staring at his own reflection in the mirror. He was sweating, his face and knuckles covered with dried blood from Alan and Bastian.

He punched the mirror, breaking it in several pieces, these digging into his fist and arm, as he slid down under the sinks, legs spread out in front of him, staring at the ceiling as blood continued to drip from his arm to the floor.


	4. Proposition

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I have a proposition for you.”  
> This caught the brunette’s attention.  
> “It is very obvious that you should be dead.”  
> At this point, Parker just chuckled. What else could he do?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two chapters in a day oh boy oh boy i hope i am able to update this thing daily.

“This is fascinating, Lazaro. Even more than fascinating, it is truly a medical marvel!”

Marianne stared at the glass window to the teenager inside. It wasn’t that hard for her to approach and befriend Parker, surprising no one since she had far more charisma than Lazaro; it wasn’t hard for her to befriend the brunette.

“He wasn’t bitten, scratched or anything, it seems that he just died a sudden death, and from what I can see, since I haven’t been able to examine him, it wasn’t natural causes!” The woman was practically jumping, reciting to Lazaro everything she could find out about Parker in the span of a day.

“The teenager seems to just be like a human, he is aware of his past, his surroundings…” Marianne cupped her chin on her palms, smiling widely as she was pondering.

“And that _hunger_ of his… he has to eat human meat, otherwise he will become just a mindless undead!”

“You seem to be enjoying this way too much, Marianne.” Lazaro blurted, staring at the teenager who was feasting on human liver. It was a hard process, but it seemed that the boy was slowly coming to terms with it.

“How couldn’t I? do you know what this means? We can learn so much from him!” She continued to stare at Parker, who had finished his meal and was wiping the blood off his mouth with his palm. “We could even create a cure!”

This made Lazaro widen his eyes, Marianne eyeing him with delight at the subtle movement; after pondering, Lazaro left the room heading to Parker’s small room, Marianne sighing with delight.

 

The door opened wide, Parker tiredly turning his head to whoever it was that entered this time. The woman from before, Marianne, was a nice change of mood, her charisma made Parker feel better about his situation, and even managed to answer some of her questions. She did say they only wanted to help.

But Marianne didn’t enter the room. Instead, it was the tall wrinkly old man from before, who stood tall before him, Parker still sitting on the room hugging his knees, tired of even asking what was happening.

“Parker Jones, is it?” The man blurted. Parker was too emotionally exhausted to say anything, simply nodding at the man.

“I have a proposition for you.”

This caught the brunette’s attention.

“It is very obvious that you should be dead.”

 

At this point, Parker just chuckled. What else could he do?

“However, you are neither alive nor dead. You have become what you children would call a “zombie”, with the big difference that you don’t want to rip my heart out; not at the moment, anyways.”

He wasn’t sure if it was tiredness but Parker let out a chuckle. This situation was way too absurd for him to take seriously.

“This is the first time we have seen a case like yours. Your existence can help us understand the ‘zombie’ phenomenon. With your help, we might even be able to create a cure.”

Parker blinked lazily, cocking his head to the side.

“You let us research you, and you will be able to roam around the institution as you please. You will get housing, food, and you will be comfortable, with the condition that you let us study you and your general behavior.”

Parker turned his gaze to the floor, facing away from Lazaro.

“Are you listening to me? You’ll live here. You will-“

“I can’t see my family ever again?”

Parker’s voice creaked, not sure himself if it was due to exhaustion or because of sadness.  In return, Lazaro sighed frustrated, as if Parker’s question was the stupidest thing he had ever been asked.

“You are dead. We cannot let anyone that your kind exists. It would create _panic_ , do you understand that? You can’t return home.”

Parker faced the man once again, his mouth twitching.

“You are dead to them, and it should stay that way.”

 

He buried his face on his knees, sighing deeply as he ran his fingers through his hair, Lazaro simply staring at him without saying anything awaiting for the teenager’s answer.

“…I accept.”

“Good,” Lazaro blurted, immediately walking towards the door.

“If you hadn’t accepted,” he stopped, on the door frame, turning his gaze to Parker once again.

“We would have killed you.”

He then closed the door, leaving Parker in lonely silence once again.

 

Lazaro entered the observation office, noticing that his assistant Noah was already in the room sitting next to Marianne.

“You are late, Noah.” Lazaro blurted as he scowled at the man.

“We were at the hospital, my wife had a scare with the baby,” Noah didn’t even turn to answer to Lazaro, making a soft waving gesture with his left hand “Not that you care at all anyways.”

“Noah.” The seriousness of his voice made Noah turn and face the man directly, his face more annoyed than scared.

“Get ready a room for him to stay, inform everybody that he will be staying inside the facility as a guest, with security in every room in case anything goes wrong, and that this is top secret. If any of you tweet about this I will make sure you are Mister Jones’ next meal. Understood?”

“Understood.” Without another word, Noah immediately stood and exited the office, ready to accommodate the Jones boy in the institution facility.

 

Lazaro positioned himself in the center of the room staring at the boy, Marianne sitting and staring at him, annoyed.

“Hey,” She said, but Lazaro didn’t move.

“Hey!” The redhead blurted louder this time, catching the man’s attention.

“What?” he bared his teeth at her, but Marianne simply laughed at his annoyance.

“Why don’t you just open him up? Don’t you know how much we can learn with a vivisection? Just imagine it! Can he feel pain, can-“

“We need him to trust us first. We can’t just go opening him like that. We can learn much more of his behavior and his mental stability if we are passive about this.”

Marianne’s mouth twitched in annoyance, staring at the boy once again.

“He… he is a miracle.” Her smile was slick.

“And you waste him like this…”

“You will not open him up, Marianne.”

“Hmph!” She stood up, exiting the room annoyed at her oh so called boss.

“He is not your daughter, you know.”

Lazaro eyes widened as he stared at Marianne, standing in the door frame looking at him with a sly smile.

“Sometimes we need to make sacrifices to save the others.”

She shrugged, blurting a chuckle.

“But what do I know? You are my boss, after all.”

The clacking of her heels could be heard as she walked off, Lazaro was stunned at what Marianne was implying. He sat, observing the still boy on the room in front of him.

 

\---

 

“How are you feeling, Parker?”

“Okay, actually.”

“That’s good. Are you hungry?”

“No, not at all.”

“Good, good.”

Every morning Marianne asked the same questions to Parker as a routine, he already was used to all the questions and the check-ups. He had been in the institution for a month now, he had gotten used to how life (death?) was in there. Parker liked to think that if he agreed to do everything they asked him to, a cure to his… disease would be found faster, and he could return to his family after all this time.

It was probably a childish thought, he figured, but it gave him hope.

“Alright, it seems you are okay now, so we can just move on and-“

“What is happening with me?”

 

Marianne was slightly surprised at the question. So far, Parker had done everything he was told to no questions asked, things like staying still for an examination, or to lift things to calculate his strength. For him to ask all of sudden was… strange.

“What do you mean, honey?”

“I mean, they keep- they keep making these tests, these examinations, but they don’t tell me the answers. Am I really dead? Is-is there a chance I can be cured? And why am I… aware? Why am I not a mindless zombie? Did I get bit by one and didn’t even notice it?”

He ran his fingers through his hair, biting his lip.

“I-I just want to know…”

 

Marianne looked at him, and placed her papers in a desk near Parker’s bed. She looked at him in a serious and yet calming manner.

“For some reason, after you died you came back to life.” She started, Parker staring at her with intent eyes leaning from the edge of the bed he was sitting on.

“We haven’t figured exactly why you came back to life. Your physiology is the same as an undead. You have the strength, the hunger, the durability of an undead. And yet, your mind remained the same as if you were alive.

“You haven’t been bitten by a zombie, we already analyzed your body and we haven’t found any trace of the virus, at least not the active form. The type you have, however, seems to be passive.”

Parker sat silently, his eyesight falling to the floor.

“This is as far as we know, Parker. We are trying our hardest to understand what is happening to you, and if there is a way to reverse it.” She grabbed Parker’s hand between hers, his pale gray contrasting with her white, sleek fingers.

“With your help, we can save a lot of people. You may not know it, but you are doing a great deed.”

“Yeah?” Parker chuckled, he would be blushing if he could. “I sure don’t feel like so.”

“Parker, I need to know.” Marianne’s grip on Parker hands became tighter, her face full of concern as she leaned to get closer to the boy.

“Would you do anything to help? Would you do anything, if it meant saving lives?”

The teenager blinked, slightly taken aback from the redhead’s question.

“Uh, yeah. I would do whatever it took.”

The brunette smiled, a genuine smile, something he hadn’t done in a while.

“You are my friend, Marianne. I would do anything for you!”

 

Marianne smile widened, as she let go of Parker’s hands.

“Yes! We are friends, Parker.”

She patted him in the head.

“Don’t forget that.”

 

With that, Marianne gathered her things and exited the room, but before doing so, she stood at the door turning one last time to Parker.

“Oh Parker, sweetie?”

“Yes?”

“Stay in here until I come back, please? And if anyone comes in, don’t tell them of our little chat.”

“Um,” Parker was confused by this, but he figured that he could trust her. Something about her sweetness and protectiveness reminded Parker of his own mother. How protective she was to him. “Sure. What for?”

“Oh, don’t worry about it, hon.”

 

Marianne closed the door, pressing her back against it feeling her heart pounding against her chest. She was far too excited, her fingers were shaking from the anticipation.

The redhead quickly ran to her operation room. She needed to get ready.

 


	5. The Good Doctor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When she asked him for a favor, Parker didn’t think it would be this. He would have never imagined what she was planning on doing with him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Davey has a talk with his parents and Parker realizes some people are not to be trusted.  
> Warning for gore, vivisection, and b*tch being thrown around by Lazaro a couple of times.

“Mister and Miss Jones?”

Davey parents inmediately stood up from their seats to face the doctor, their faces painted with worry and tiredness.

“Sir? Is he okay? Did he hurt anything?” The woman asked, clenching a cloth napkin she has been using to previously wipe her tears, her husband just sternly looked at the doctor, saying nothing.

“Luckily, your son didn’t hurt himself beyond repair. He had to get twenty stitches, however; his arm will hurt and he shouldn’t use it until it heals, or the stitches will rip.”

The couple sighed in relief, a weight lifted from their shoulders.

“However,” the doctor looked at the couple sternly, catching their attention. “I highly advice you take your son to a psychologist. He didn’t hurt himself this time, however these anger outbursts can be dangerous to him and the people around him. He needs to find a way to let that anger out in a healthy way.  Otherwise, don’t be surprised that he will have more accidents like this.”

The Jones silently stared at the doctor, then turned to face each other in silence.

 

The trip home was silent, with Davey staring absentmindedly at the car’s windows, his father driving and his mother fiddling with the cloth between her palms. When they reached their home, the teenager was the first one to get out of the car, calmly opening the door of his house and heading outside.

“We need to do something!” the woman said to his husband, practically running inside the house to catch up to her teenaged son.

“Davey?”

The brunette stopped on the stairs, but didn’t turn to his mother.

“Yeah?”

“Can… Can we talk?”

Davey turned around slowly. His expression was tired, as if he hadn’t sleep for days, bags under his eyes.

“…Yeah, okay.”

The teenager walked down the stairs, sitting on one of the couches as his mother and father sat in front of him.

“Davey, we are worried about you. About- about what happened today, sweetie.”

The teenager wasn’t about to make any excuses, he ran his healthy hand through his hair, sighing as he knew his parents were right.

“Yeah. Yeah, I know. Sorry.”

“We are not mad at you, Davey.”

Davey had to admit this legitimately surprised him, normally one would think that when you break another’s person nose, your parents would be very angry with you, especially if said event got you suspended from school.

“N-no…?”

“We are worried about… your wellbeing.”

Davey nervously twiddled his fingers until he realized that hurt, a lot.

“Don’t, it won’t happen again.”

“Davey-“

“It won’t happen again, alright? It- it won’t.”

“Son,” His father said. Davey wasn’t that used to his father speaking, he had to admit. His work was his life, and he was also a very, very quiet man. His mother normally was the one that did all the talking, it’s like they both understand each other telepathically.

“We would like you to go to the psychologist-“

“I’m not crazy.”

“We know you aren’t, but it is a hard time for all of us, and-“

“I am not crazy! I, I can fix this. I just-“

 

The teenager fists began to shake once again, adrenaline pumping. They were right, his rage outbursts were worrying not only them but also him; he couldn’t control himself.

“I just-“

He stood silent for a while. He scratched the back of his neck, he noticed he was sweating.

“I-I’m going to sleep. Can we continue this tomorrow?”

“…It’s okay, sweetie.” Said his mother, sad at the developments of the conversation.

Davey nodded, leaving the living room and trying his hardest to just not dash to his room.

The teenager locked himself in his room, sliding down the door and spreading his legs. He stared down at his fists, wondering that maybe he was crazy.

“What am I going to do with myself…” the teenager said, reclining his head against the door and staring at the white ceiling. His parents didn’t let him paint it another color for some reason, but maybe because Davey just wanted it to be bright neon red to be an asshole to his parents. It was awfully white, awfully empty.

The teenager stared at his injured arm, examining the stitches as he ran a finger slightly over them, stopping when he felt how it burned.

“Heh, Peej would think this was totally awesome.”

He smiled sadly, as he continued to stare at his injuries.

 

\---

 

The phone began to rang, promptly waking up Lazaro from his restless sleep. Infuriated, he picked up the phone almost breaking it, practically shouting into it.

“ _What,_ ” he barked at the phone, if he was stronger he would have broken the screen with his grip “ _do you want?_ ”

“Oh, did I wake you up from your beauty sleep? Aka twenty three hours a day?”

Lazaro snarled at the phone.

“Noah, this _better_ be important.”

“Oh, you’ll love it, Laz.” Lazaro knew Noah enough for him to know when Noah was truly pissed, even if his voice tone didn’t change that much from his regular one.

“The Parker boy is missing.”

 

Lazaro went silent for a couple of seconds.

“What do you mean, missing?”

“We can’t find him anywhere; no cameras have seen him since the guard’s shift.”

“Where was the last place you saw him?”

“His room, before the guard changed shifts. After that, he was gone.”

“How much time has passed?”

“Three hours.”

Lazaro eyes widened as he sat straight on his bed, a sharp pain of his head appearing from the motion.

“Three hours?! Why are you telling me just now?!”

“I just found out, myself. The guy in charge of the cameras was really terrified of being fired, you know.”

“I’m coming immediately.”

Lazaro ended the call, getting up as fast as he could (which wasn’t very fast), and getting dressed. Where could have the boy gone? The dead teenager hadn’t expressed any wishes to escape, apart from the occasional lamenting that he could go home; Lazaro was actually surprised at how compliant Jones had been through the entire process. It was very unlikely for him to just up and disappear.

 

Lazaro reached the camera room as fast as he could, Noah being there questioning the guard in shift, this one being a young man, not much older than Lazaro himself.

“S-sir! I-“

“Shut up.” Blurted Lazaro, throwing the young man a look that could kill; he obliged.

“Has anyone seen him?” Lazaro turned to Noah, who was crossing his arms staring at the cameras still showing the same.

“No, he has been missing since the morning. Someone got into his room to do the normal check-up, and then he remained there until the guard shift. Then he was gone.”

“Who made the check-up?”

Noah grabbed some papers, going through them as fast as he could to find the name of whoever was responsible of that.

“Marianne Sutton.”

 

Lazaro’s stomach went cold.

“Has anyone seen Doctor Sutton for the past three hours?”

Noah made some calls, calling the heads of every department in the institution, all while Lazaro brought his hand to his chin, fearing already the worst.

“The department she works for says that they haven’t seen her ever since she interviewed Parker. They assumed she just went home, but there is no register of her actually leaving.”

“Oh, that _bitch_.”

 

Noah was confused. He hadn’t gotten to know Marianne that much apart from the fact that she was a great surgeon, graduated with honors, got to do pretty much whatever she wanted in the institution since she was that good; however she clashed a lot with Lazaro. He recognized she was amazing at what she did, however he never approved of her “I’ll do whatever I want” personality. It was to expect.

“Lazaro? What-“

“Noah, I need you to gather security _right now_.”

Noah obliged, calling the head of security along with guards trained to deal with the undead with him, as he accompanied Lazaro, who was practically jogging to Marianne’s private surgery room.

“Lazaro, where are we going?!” Noah yelled as he walked along Lazaro, with security on their tails.

“Marianne’s room; she doesn’t have cameras there. She says she prefers for everything to be ‘private’”

“Do you think she took Parker?”

“Oh, way worse.”

“What? What do you mean?”

Lazaro stopped in front of the door of Marianne’s surgery room, the pink color and the flowers painted in it (to piss off Lazaro, of course) looked far more morbid now that he was standing in front of them. The room was soundproof, whatever was happening inside no one could hear it. Noah shuddered as he felt a sense of dread on the bottom of his stomach creeping to his chest.

“You’ll see.”

 

\---

 

The flower print in the ceiling was imprinted into his mind.

He stared at the ceiling refusing to move his eyes, if he did… he would have to look at Marianne and what she was doing.

When she asked him for a favor, Parker didn’t think it would be this. He would have never imagined what she was planning on doing with him.

Parker hissed as he could feel Marianne fingers digging inside of him. It didn’t _hurt,_ but he felt it. He felt her sleek fingers touching his organs and pulling them out as if his body was some sort of morbid jigsaw.

“Parker, sweetie, what’s wrong? Don’t you want to look?”

Parker grunted as he felt how Marianne tugged his intestines out of his body.

“You’ll never have an opportunity like this ever again!” she chuckled, as Parker hissed and wriggled from his bonds.

Tears began to fall from his face, he wanted to wake up from this nightmare. He wanted to wake up to find Davey throwing bugs to his bed-sheets, he wanted to wake up to find out he overslept for school again; he didn’t want to be in this.

“Please stop! Marianne- Stop!” Parker cried as he struggled to get away in vain.

“But Parker, you said you would do _anything_ , am I wrong?”

“Please! Please, I-“

 

The door slammed open, Lazaro immediately entering the room as she stared at Marianne. She hesitated for a couple of seconds, smiling in a friendly manner to the tall man blonde.

“Lazaro! What a surprise. I wasn’t going to call you for a couple of hours more, but-“

“Marianne. What are you _doing?_ ”

“I’m helping you, Lazaro!” Marianne almost sounded offended at the fact that Lazaro couldn’t see that, as if it was that obvious that she was trying to do him a favor.

“I specifically FORBADE you from doing this, how _dare_ you-“

“Oh my god!”

 

Noah finally entered the room, his pale going pale from the sheer horror of what he was seeing; Parker’s torso opened, his organs hanging out from his body, and Marianne just standing there as if it was nothing.

“Step away from him, now.” Lazaro yelled at the woman. Her mouth twitched, her smile turning into a frown as she looked back at the teenager lying on the operating table.

“No.”

“Marianne-“

“What are you doing? I’m helping you. Do you not want my help?”

“You went against my specific orders!”

“He said he wanted to do it!” Marianne screamed, pointing her scalpel at Parker, who kept his gaze on the ceiling, not having the courage to look at the group in the room.

“He said he wanted to help! He is mine! I can do with him whatever I want!” the redhead continued to scream, her calm demeanor breaking as her face twisted in rage.

“You didn’t tell him you would open him up while he was _awake_!” Lazaro screamed back at her, towering over the woman.

“He said he would do anything!”

“YOU DISOBEYED _MY ORDERS!_ ”

“ _You don’t order me around!_ ”

 

The redhead breathed hard as the adrenaline rushed through her body, staring up at a furious Lazaro, Marianne wasn’t actually sure what he would do now, but she wasn’t backing down.

“You are right.” Lazaro said, his voice unusually calm compared to how angry it normally was.

“I don’t order you around. Not anymore.”

Marianne eyebrows arched as she began to understand where Lazaro was going.

“All of your projects will be confiscated from you, all the reports you have made will now be owned by the Institute, you will be prohibited from even coming near the institute.” Marianne bared her teeth, her eyes widening. “Your employment has been terminated today. Pick up your personal belongings and _get out_.”

 

Noah had never seen Marianne so furious, she looked like she was ready to bury the scalpel into Lazaro’s neck. She stood quiet, huffing and looking around at Parker, the guards and at Lazaro.

In a whim, she took off her gloves, bathrobe, mouth mask and hair protector and threw them all to Lazaro’s feet along with the scalpel, filling his shoes with blood. The thin woman shoved her way out of the room, her high heels clacking along the hallway.

“One of you go and follow her, make sure she leaves the premises and after she does, void her badges.”

One of the men nodded, following the infuriated surgeon through the hallway.

“Lazaro-“

“ _What”_ He sneered at Noah, who managed to keep his composure after what happened between Lazaro and Marianne; Noah pointed at the boy without a word, Lazaro’s gaze turning to the boy who was heavily breathing, wide open as his organs hung out of his body.

“Bring someone to stitch him up. I’ll…” Lazaro turned, almost sadly, to the door.

“I’ll talk to him later.”

 

Parker had been in such an emotional state he didn’t even notice what happened between Lazaro and the surgeon, his mind jumping around the insides and the smell of blood, his blood on the room. The feel of her fingers, touching him and digging through his insides, he could still feel it, as if he was some science experiment.

“ “

Someone called to him, he could barely hear him between his own hisses and his own tears, he got called again.

“Parker?”

The teenager recognized the voice; it was Noah, Parker wasn’t exactly sure what Noah’s job was, but he knew that he was the second most important person in the institution, the first one being Lazaro. When Lazaro wasn’t present, Noah was the one that gave orders around; however he was definitely more charismatic than Lazaro.

“Parker, don’t worry, we called someone and they will come and stitch you up.”

“N-no-“

“Parker, you’ll be fine-“

“No!”

Parker began to trash around the surgical table, feeling how his organs moved along with him, he arched his back yelling and screaming, tears falling from his face.

“Parker!”

“Do not touch me! Don’t-“

Parker looked down to his own body. His organs were spread out around him, he could see inside of him, his blood smeared on the table as his organs were an unarranged mess. His guts, she has touched his _guts_.

Parker began to cry uncontrollably, falling limp in the table Noah unable to do anything but grab his hand.


	6. House of Wolves

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Look, Miss Hyde, I am not going to lie to you. That is a dead person right there, alive for god knows what reason, and at the moment he is really pissed off. I understand if you just bail out, it would be the logical thing to do.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another one with Davey and Parker, another long one as well.  
> Davey starts learning how to cope with his anger, and Parker is getting fed up with the Institution

“I’m going to my room, see you later.”

“Oh, okay-“

Before his mother could finish the teenager was making his way to his room, closing the door behind him. For the past week Davey had been holed up on his room for god knows what reason, only coming out for dinner and to go to the bathroom. His mother was of course worried, but she hadn’t mustered the courage to check up on what he was doing. She was afraid her son had been doing nothing but sleep for the entire day. Susan Jones sighed sadly.

 

Tim Jones entered his house silently, placing his keys in the bowl at the side of the front door; the first thing he saw was his wife sitting on the living-room reading, not even noticing he had come home. Susan was the kind of person that was the opposite from Tim; he was silent, very serious and he rarely showed emotion. And yet, Susan was outspoken, energetic and wore her heart in her sleeve, never afraid of letting people know what she thought. He loved that about her.

The past few weeks she has been quiet, her energy disappearing, but today she seemed even more troubled than before.

The man placed himself in the couch next to her, kissing Susan’s cheek softly as she put her book down.

“What’s wrong, Susan?” Tim said softly, putting his briefcase in the table at the center of the room.

“It’s Davey. He worries me, Tim.” She faced her husband now, her eyebrows arching and her eyes slightly red. “He has been holing himself in his bedroom all day ever since we talked with him. I-I’m worried he is hurting himself…”

She covered her face with her tiny hands, trying as hard as possible to not start sobbing. James silently comforted her, hugging her tightly as she began to silently cry.

“I’ll talk to him.” He said softly, as she buried her head on his chest.

“He needs his father…”

Tim nodded, giving his wife a light squeeze as he let her go, heading to his son’s room.

 

Timothy Jones was never a very talkative individual, and after the accident happened, it just worsened. He was terrified of having to confront his son about what had happened, but he was far more terrified of what his son might have been doing. Davey was a very volatile person, his father was terrified that he might hurt himself.

“Davey, son, I would like to talk to you.” Tim said to the closed door, and he could hear some faint music inside of the room. There was no answer, and he was afraid he would have to bring the house keys to unlock the door to his son’s bedroom, however this was not the case as he opened the door easily, it was unlocked.

“Son, I would like to-“ Tim stopped as he saw what was in the room.

 

His son’s belongings were all put neatly in place (very strange indeed, Davey was a fan of messiness), but that was not what shocked Tim; the entire room, previously white, had been painted with circles and swirls of colors. The mural had no structure, but Tim could have sworn it looked like a galaxy; Davey turned around, paintbrush in hand and his face covered in paint splatters, surprised his father had come to his room.

“Oh, uh, hey dad.” The brunette answered awkwardly, him being a mess compared to his sharp dressed father.

“What are you doing?” his father asked, his tone not angered, but rather curious.

“I uh,” he stuttered, scratching the back of his neck with the paintbrush in hand, covering himself in even more paint without realizing it. “I’m- the room. It was too empty.”

He gestured to the entire room. “You know, it was all white. It looked too empty. It-it needed to get covered.” Davey stopped, looking around the room one last time.

“It looks better this way.”

Tim looked in awe at his son’s creation, Davey nervously moving in his place.

“I know you told me to not paint it any ridiculous color, I-“

“No, no, son. I’m not mad.”  The two of them shared glances, Timothy’s being calm and understanding, Davey’s nervous and fidgety.

“Your mom is worried about you.”

Davey sighed heavily. “I know.”

“Do you… want to talk?”

Davey shook his head slightly.

“I’m tired.”

Tim nodded softly.

“Goodnight, son.” He opened Davey’s door once again, but he stopped.

“…Tell me if you need more paint.”

“Will do.”

 

\---

 

Noah had been inside the room for so long, he had no idea if it was day or night. He rubbed the bridge of his nose as he looked up once again.

Ever since Marianne’s little stunt Parker had been uncooperative, holing himself in his room and refusing to move or eat. This had put them in a delicate situation when he tried to attack a staff that entered his room; they were forced to chain him once again in a bare room.  To put make matters worse, Lazaro hadn’t talked to the boy as he promised he would, and it seemed that no one cared to talk to Parker about the incident, but Noah wasn’t in the mood to talk with the boy, especially considering the boy had barely eaten.

“Alright… Samantha Hyde, is it?”

 

Lazaro had ordered Noah to look for someone that could look after Parker, someone that could keep tabs on him and make sure he was eating regularly; basically a babysitter if you asked Noah about it.

“Yes, Sir.” The girl was young, but she had been working with the institution for a long time now, and Noah was looking everywhere for anybody that wasn’t terrified to get close the young Aware. He had been trying all day, but when they got in the room with him, they all left. Some of them even quit due to the pressure.

“Look, Miss Hyde, I am not going to lie to you. That is a dead person right there, alive for god knows what reason, and at the moment he is really pissed off. I understand if you just bail out, it would be the logical thing to do.”

Samantha gulped, but her face remained calm.

“I am aware of the risks, sir. Before I make my decision, I would like to try.”

 

Noah just looked at her, not believing it one bit, but he was too tired to call in for the next person.

“Alright then, go in. He is chained, he can’t actually harm you. He recently ate, so you don’t have to worry about him going feral.”

“Thank you, sir.”

With that, Samantha stood up, exiting the room. Noah stood up in front of the mirror, Parker huddled in a corner of the room; the young woman made her way to the room, calmly opening the door, closing it behind her.

“Hello?” she called, but the teenager didn’t move.

“Hi, my name is Samantha Hyde. I am here to accompany you.” Parker still didn’t move, his back facing Samantha and his head buried between his legs.

“Mind if I sit down?” There was a chair in the middle of the room, far away for Parker to actually grab, and she sat down in it, looking at Parker.

“Your name is Parker, right?” she asked, but the teenager made no effort to answer at all, he continued to stay still in the corner.

“Parker, I’m here to look after you, make sure how you are doing and to talk to you.”

“Go away.” He spoke so softly and in such a low tone, Samantha at first thought she imagined him speaking, but she continued.

“We can get to know each other, and I am sure-“

“Go away!” this time, Parker spoke louder, standing up and turning to the young woman.

“Parker, I know you are upset, but please-“

“Shut up! Did they tell you to come here? Did they tell you I needed ‘help’?!” he yelled at her.

“I volunteered myself to come here and speak to you. My only intention is to gain your trust-“

“So you can open me up like she did?! So I can be your little science experiment?!” It was plain _disturbing_  how mad Parker seemed to be, the teenager just simply looked incapable of anger, and yet there he was.

 

Samantha kept silent, she could feel her heartbeat increasing, but she wouldn’t run away from this, she would face him.

“Parker, I know that you must feel terrible-“

“You _know_?!” Parker began to walk towards the woman, his eyes never leaving hers as he continued to scream.

“How could you ever know?! How could you even pretend that you know?!”

“Parker, please-“

“ _She opened me up!”_ Samantha went silent, staring at Parker with her mouth half open, his chain not letting him to walk closer to her.

“ _She dug inside of ME!”_

 

They both stayed silent, Parker huffing and breathing heavily as he stared at Samantha, her eyebrows arched and her eyes sympathetic.

After several minutes, she finally spoke.

 

“I’m sorry.”

 

Parker said nothing, he turned to stare at the “mirror”, he already knew that whoever was on the other side could hear him clear as day.

“I want to speak to Lazaro.”

“Parker, I-“

“I want to speak to Lazaro!” screamed the teenager towards the mirror.

Samantha bit her lip. She had no idea what to do, her gut telling her to attempt to calm Parker down.

“Parker, we only want to help-“

“LEAVE!”

Parker hurt his own throat screaming down at the woman, and after being silent for several seconds she stood up, and quietly left the room. She wasn’t going to give up, but Samantha knew Parker needed time to steam off.

After she left, Parker turned to the mirror once again, getting as near as the chain let him, snaring his teeth.

“If you want me to keep playing these stupid games, then bring Lazaro.”

He growled.

“I’m waiting, Noah.”

 

Noah looked at the teenager from the other side of the room his hand on his chin as miss Hyde approached him.

“I-“

“Don’t worry Miss Hyde. It wasn’t your fault.” He started to dial on his cellphone, bringing it into his ear.

“Lazaro? You need to come here immediately.”

 

\---

 

Parker paced around the room as much as the chain in his foot let him, huffing all the while. He still felt her inside of him. He could still feel Marianne’s long white fingers digging through him as if he was some science experiment, tracing his organs with her fingertips, pulling them. He couldn’t get rid of the feeling of her… her smile, how she seemed so _happy_.

The brunette turned to the mirror once again, screaming into it.

“Where is Lazaro?! Noah, I know you can call him whenever you want! W _here. Is. Lazaro?!_ ”

“I’m here.”

 

Parker turned as he saw the tall man emerge from the door, closing it behind him. He looked like a mess, he seemed more exhausted than normal, and Parker could swear he saw blood on the corner of the man’s mouth.

Parker stared at the man intensely, his shoulders rising up and down with his breathing, his mouth twitching.

“I thought you wanted to talk to me. I’m here, Parker. Say whatever you need to say.”

The brunette shook his head slowly in rage, even if he didn’t feel pain he could swear he felt his vivisection scar burn, as I it was a remainder of what the Institution had done to him.

“ _Why.”_

Lazaro stood silent, staring at the boy. Parker’s chest rose faster, his breathing intensifying.

“ _Why_ did you let that happen?! Was it all part of your plan, are you mad she just did that earlier?!”

Parker frantically passed his fingers through his messy hair, his eyes widening in panic, his body contorting and lurching forward.

“Am I just an experiment, a-a piece of meat you can just analyze and cut to pieces?! Is this what this is about?!”

Lazaro let him continue screaming, not moving not even an inch.

“Answer me!”

 

Silently, Lazaro approached the young man, his footsteps echoing in the room. He stopped Justin front of Parker, towering over him; Parker eyes focused on Lazaro’s blue eyes, a low growl emerging from the teenager’s throat.

“You chose to cooperate with us.” The man eyes focused on the small teenager’s frame, his voice never changing of tone.

“You were given the choice, and you chose to live here and cooperate.”

Lazaro continued to stare, Parker’s eyes were so familiar. He looked so much like her, his eyes were the same color as Claire, before…

“However, what Marianne did was not condoned by me, nor any of our associates. She worked behind our backs, and I have forbidden her from coming any close to the Institution, to you.”

Parker dropped his gaze, biting his lip, but he was still scowling.

“Do not make this difficult for us. If you become too difficult to handle, we will be forced to kill you.”

The teenager looked up back to the man, leering at him, Lazaro could feel Parker’s hate through his eyes.

“I can’t trust you.”

“As long as you don’t start eating my staff, I do not care.”

The man turned around, walking hastily towards the door, but Parker wasn’t done. There was something else he needed to know.

“Lazaro!”, called the teenager, prompting the man to turn around once again, scowl on his face (this being his neutral face, from Parker’s experience with the man).

“Did…” Parker hesitated. The scar across his chest was burning.

“What she did…” He gulped. “Did- did it need to happen?”

Lazaro stared at the young man for a long time.

“No.”

Parker’s expression turned from anger to sadness.

“No, it did not.”

Lazaro left the room, leaving Parker to slide down to the floor, staring at the light-bulb in the ceiling, as it began to flicker.

 


	7. Maggot Boy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I’m dealing, I think. I don’t know. I am not even sure what I have been doing these past days, it’s like I am not even here.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Davey visits a friend, and Parker makes a new one.

The teenager stood in front of the door of the orange house, biting hi slip nervously as he hesitated on ringing the doorbell. It was a hot Saturday, the birds chirping around him as Davey realized that maybe it was too early; but he was there anyways, he rather try ringing the bell.

 _Ding dong!_ The bell rang, and Davey could have sworn he heard the barking of a small dog inside the house. After some minutes, Davey decided that maybe the house was alone, but before the brunette had the chance of turning around the door opened, a teenager slightly taller than him opening the door.

“Davey?”

“Oh hey, Bastian!” Davey said awkwardly. He didn’t actually expect Bastian himself to open the door, he thought his mom or one of his brothers would do it. The half blonde, half brunette (Davey  couldn’t even remember which one was his natural hair color) had a slight bruise in his left cheek, the one Davey punched days ago.

“Davey, what a surprise! I hadn’t seen you since you were suspended.” Bastian then widened his eyes realizing that maybe Davey was still upset about that, so he tried to justify himself.

“I didn’t go to your house or called because… well, I figured you wanted some time alone.” He rubbed the back of his neck nervously, feeling guilty for not trying to get in contact.

“No, it’s okay. Actually…” Davey scratched his cheek with his good arm. “I, erm, I was here because I wanted to apologize.”

Bastian eyebrows arched, confused. Davey looked at him for some seconds, not sure if his friend’s silence meant that he accepted the apology or not.

“You know, for what happened the other day. I shouldn’t have punched you. You… were trying to help.”

“Oh,” Bastian exclaimed as he finally remembered the event Davey was talking about. “You don’t have to apologize, Davey. I completely understand.”

“Bastian, I _hit_ you.”

“Yes, but you weren’t yourself at the time.” Bastian tried to comfort his friend. “You didn’t mean it, and… you were going through a lot, still are. It wouldn’t be fair for me to judge you.”

Davey looked at Bastian puzzled, surprised even.

“Man,” Davey chuckled, running his fingers through his hair. “You are way too good for your own good, do you know that?”

Bastian laughed, inviting Davey inside of his home, Davey smiling and stepping inside without a word.

 

The two teenagers were in the kitchen, Bastian getting out some food from the fridge and placing it in the counter.

“Where is everybody? Normally this place is packed on Saturdays.” Davey mentioned, leaning against the counter as he looked around Bastian’s fancy kitchen.

“They all went to an aunt’s wedding out of state, I couldn’t come with because we have a big soccer game tomorrow.” He grabbed some left over pizza, placing it in the counter, but before he could heat it in the microwave Davey simply grabbed a piece and started to eat it, not caring that it was cold. Bastian shrugged, and did the same.

“You up to the game?” Bastian asked between chews, Davey shaking his head and rolling his eyes.

“I can’t go to any games while I am suspended. Besides, arm is fucked.” The brunette lifted his arm, the stitches still red.

“Oh, man.” Bastian said, leaning in closer to inspect the injury up close. “That is going to leave a wicked scar.”

“I know, right?” Davey laughed, smirking as he looked at his arm. “This is what I get for punching mirrors.”

Bastian put his slice of pizza on the counter, biting his lip nervously. Davey took note on this and put his arm down, thinking he might have made his friend uncomfortable with the comment.

“…Are you okay?” Bastian asked with concern on his voice. “That day, you… you looked pretty bad. How are you doing?”

“I’m…” Davey didn’t even know how to answer to that. How was he dealing? He beat up a kid, got himself in the hospital and had painted his entire room in a whim. Davey didn’t even know if he was dealing with it or just simply ignoring it waiting for everything to go away.

“I’m dealing, I think. I don’t know. I am not even sure what I have been doing these past days, it’s like I am not even here.” Davey placed his head on the counter, his hands on his hair. “I just…”

Davey sighed, rubbing his eyes with his good hand as he tried to keep his cool. Bastian was his best friend, but he still felt that he needed to keep himself in check.

“Davey, you know you can count of me. For whatever you need, right?”

Davey chuckled, breathing heavily as he tried to calm down.

“Yeah, yeah. I know.” Davey smile twitched, as he stared down the half eaten pizza slice in front of him. “Do you mind if… I hang around? I just don’t want to be alone.”

Bastian’s smile was bright, sincere. “Of course Davey!” he then waved his hands on the air.

“I just got this great game, you can play co-op and kill a bunch of aliens!”

Davey smiled brightly, excited at the news. “Dibs player one!”

“No way! This is my house!” Bastian yelled in anticipation. “I am player one!”

 

\---

 

Parker kept passing his finger on top of the scar on his chest absentmindedly. He had realized shortly after death that he didn’t feel pain like he used to back when he was alive, but his scar felt like fire, as if it was something rotten and putrid on him, but maybe that was just because he was already dead.

“How are you feeling today, Parker?”

The boy looked up to Samantha, who was getting her stuff out of the cardboard boxes. Weeks had passed since Parker’s vivisection, and living in the Institution had proven to be mentally exhausting for the teenager. He would constantly wake up screaming, go into panic attacks and be uncooperative, Samantha had suggested moving Parker to another place, away from the institution. Somehow, Noah made Lazaro agree, and they had been transferred to an abandoned warehouse in the outskirts of the city, Samantha being assigned to look after the boy; she has been able to gain his trust, slowly to the point of agreeing to be monitored by her.

It was that or death, anyways.

 

“I’m okay.” Parker said, as he continued to touch his scars, it had become a habit of his, one that disturbed Samantha, but she hadn’t mentioned it to Parker, afraid that would upset him even more.

“If you need anything I’ll be here, okay? I will just be unloading some more boxes.”

Parker nodded. He felt guilty for not helping the young woman, but the teenager felt exhausted from what has been happening around him, it was too tiring.

“…Hey, Samantha?”  The woman was arranging the furniture in the room as well as moving boxes around deciding where to put her things, when she heard the teenager suddenly speak.

“You can call me Sam, Parker. What’s up?” she smiled warmly to the brunette.

“Why are you sticking with me?”

Samantha was surprised at the question, and before she could reply Parker inquired more.

“I was rude to you. I have been rude to you this whole time, why are you still here? You could have left long ago, back when we first met.”

 

Samantha put down the things she was holding, as she approached Parker with a friendly smile.

“I knew what I was getting into when I agreed to enter to that room with you. I knew it was going to be difficult, especially with what had happened, but I wanted to help you, I still do; I want to help as much as I can.”

Samantha looked at Parker, and his eyes seemed to relax as if a great weight was lifted from his shoulders. God, he was so young.

“Besides, nobody else wanted to do it, so Lazaro had to hire me! Lucky me, right?” Parker laughed, looking more at ease, something that made Samantha feel much better.

“…Sam?” Parker called again.

“What is it?”

“…You can call me PJ.”

 

\---

 

“…This sighting has worried people, since it is the fourth time a hooded figure has been sighted in the city wandering in the night. People have come to call this figure ‘Maggot Boy’!”

“Maggot boy?”

“I know! It sounds so ridiculous. People have said that they have seen some weird figure running through roofs and stuff. Like a vigilante, or something.”

“Have the authorities said anything about this or is this some weird rumor?”

“The police haven’t said anything about it! It just seems like a rumor some bored kid made in a whim. They think he is some sort of superhero, but-“

“But he hasn’t done anything, right?”

“No! just hang around rooftops, apparently!”

Lazaro turned the television off, making his point clear. Both Samantha and Parker were sitting in the couch of the old warehouse; with Lazaro standing in front of them, furious. He didn’t even bother calling them to the Institution, he personally went to the warehouse to deal with the oh so called ‘Maggot Boy’.

“Do you have an explanation for this?” Lazaro spat out.

 

Parker sat with his arms crossed with his gaze on the floor, nervous while Samantha looked up to Lazaro, nervous as well.

“Well?”

“Palmer, Sam has nothing to do with this.” Parker spoke, making the redhead stare at him. He was right, Samantha had no idea Parker had been going around in the city at night until rumors about it have made it the web, which was about a day ago, and even so she never thought that Parker could be behind it.

“It’s my fault; I can’t stand being here locked up all day and night, I just feel like a hamster, you know?” Parker made motions with his hands nervously.

“Do you even realize how dangerous this is?! What if someone that knew you before sees you, what then?”

“I-“

“However,” Lazaro sighed. He was pretty upset, but he had more pressing matters at hand. “’Maggot Boy’ is not the entire reason why I am here.”

 

Both Parker and Sam looked up at Lazaro, surprised at how his voice seemed more worried than anything.

“I assume you have heard of the murders going around Sovereign city.” Both Parker and Sam nodded. “This hasn’t been released to the public, but by the nature of the murders it seems that no normal killer has done it.”

“What are you talking about?”

“…The bodies, they have been eaten.”

 

Silence fell in the room, Samantha covering her mouth with her hand and wide eyes. Parker uncrossed his arms, staring at the tall man.

“...Couldn’t it just be a member of the Boli Shah cult?” Parker asked, knowing that the suggestion was farfetched, but not wanting to think about the real possibility.

“No, they don’t go this far with their weird rituals. The bodies have been torn apart, eaten.”

“Then, is this a Feral we are talking about?” Parker suggested.

“Might be, but these murders are different from what ferals do, not to mention that the victims didn’t revive as ferals.”

“Are you suggesting-“

“Another Aware?”

 

Lazaro nodded. “It is a possibility. This is why you must not be seen, we don’t want these murders to be attributed to you if its possible. The Institution will be investigating this, but until we have more information, you just have to worry about not going out.”

 

Parker nodded, making the man sigh in exhaustion.

“Until then.”

Lazaro then left the warehouse, leaving Samantha and Parker to analyze what he had said.

“Do you think it might be an aware, Peej?” Asked Samantha, her brow furrowing as she began to ponder.

“It’s… it’s very possible.”

“…You still are going to go out, right?”

“Sam, what can I say?” Parker laughed, stretching his arms and reclining his head on the couch.

“I hate being here, as if everything wasn’t already enough.”

He sighed deeply.

“Maggot boy, huh? I like it.”


	8. Blood on your Name

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> His stared at his blood stained palms; the blood was his from touching his head, but apart from this his skin was grey, dry and it looked terrible. He couldn’t stop shaking.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Davey realizes he is not as strong as he thought he was, and a new resident appears on Sovereign City

“The couple was found dead inside of their car this morning, having been murdered. The letter ‘O’ being painted with blood on the windscreen makes the public believe that this has been committed by the Sovereign killer, but the police had not given any statements as of yet. The victims-“

Bastian turned off the television, throwing the remote to the other side of the sofa he was sitting on. “Jeez.”

“I know, right?” Davey slumped into the sofa, a bowl of popcorn in one of his hands, a six pack of sodas on the other. “Mom and Dad are all worried about it too, I’m not allowed out after it gets dark.”

“To be fair, it’s very creepy.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Davey sighed, grabbing one of the cans and throwing it to Bastian, the teenager catching it.

“Come on, turn it on. The Transformers marathon is going to start.”

“Uuugh, Davey, those movies suck.”

“The robot pees, Bastian! How is that not awesome?”

Davey turned the television on once again, the news report still on, he was going to change channels but Bastian stopped him. “Hey, Davey, hang on a second. Look.”

Curious, the brunette looked at the screen.

 

“People have been talking about some ‘Maggot Boy’, a strange individual that has been sighted on the streets at night jumping around roofs. People are worried that said individual is the one behind the murders in Sovereign City, police has declared they will investigate into this rumor and advising everybody to stay inside of their homes as soon as it gets dark.”

“Wait, I thought Maggot Boy was supposed to be some sort of super hero?” Bastian asked, grabbing one of the soda cans and opening it.

“People think he is some sort of vigilante, but then the murders started to happen. Do you think they are linked?”

Bastian shrugged. “I don’t know. It is strange. Did you see that link I sent you? They apparently had a picture of Maggot Boy, the one where he is in the roof.”

“Yeah yeah, I saw it. If that in the picture is Maggot boy…” Davey took a gulp of his soda. “I don’t think he is behind the murders.”

“Huh? Why?”

“It’s just,” Davey shrugged, reclining his head on the couch. “I don’t know, he seems… strange. Like he wouldn’t commit those murders, he looks too tiny and…”

Davey made a waving motion with his hand. “I don’t know. I just don’t feel this random parkour lover is the murderer.”

“That’s probably not even him. Maybe he doesn’t even exist.”

Davey shrugged. Who knows? Ever after the undead apocalypse, the city has been paranoid about everything ever, with good reason to be fair; in the end he was pretty sure Maggot Boy is just some random guy that likes to jump roofs a la Spider-man. He changed the channels, landing on the movies he was so itching to watch.

“Oh yes! It just started!”

“Your tastes are trash, Davey!” Bastian laughed as he grabbed a handful of popcorn.

“YOUR mom is trash.”

“Hey!” Bastian said, throwing popcorn to his friend’s face. “Rude!”

 

\---

 

“Davey, I gotta pee, where is the bathroom again?”

“Down the hallway, at your right. Hurry up, they are about to fight Megatron!”

Bastian excused himself while he made a run to the bathroom, Davey getting comfortable as he continued to watch the television.

However, the movie came to a sudden halt, a female reporter appearing on the screen.

“Hey!” Davey yelled, outrageous at the interruption.

“Citizens of Sovereign City, we have urgent news that an undead, I repeat, an _undead_ has been spotted around the city. Remain in your homes, do not get out of your buildings, we do not know if it is just a stray one or if it’s a pack. I repeat, remain wherever you are, close your doors and windows. We will be reporting.”

With that, the television cut once again to the movie, but Davey wasn’t paying attention to the action on screen, his eyes were wide from what had just happened.

“Davey? What’s wrong?” Bastian asked as he approached the teenager, but before Davey could answer, Bastian’s cellphone rang. The teenager answered, being met with the frantic voice of his mother.

“Mom? I’m here with Davey, I-“

He stopped, his eyes wide as well. Davey’s cellphone began to rang as well, picking it up.

“Davey?! Where are you?” his mother yelled at him.

“Mom, it’s okay. I’m at home with Bastian, I just saw the news. I’ll lock everything up like we used to and go to the basement.”

“Do it immediately! I am with your father, we will be calling you every five minutes or so. Davey, if anything happens, call us. You have to call us! You-“

The woman began to sob, Davey biting his lip as he tried to console his mother. “Mom, don’t worry. Bas and me are going to go to the basement and lock ourselves up as well. Don’t worry about it.”

“Okay. Okay honey. You do that. I’ll call you in a few.”

“…Mom?”

“Yes?”

“I love you.”

Davey could hear his mother sobbing on the line. She replied “Me too” before she cut the call. The teenager quickly turned to Bastian, who had just stopped talking with his mother assuring her that he would stay with Davey.

“Come on Bas, help me up setting the security up.”

 

When the undead apocalypse happened many adapted their houses with special locks that were made for that very specific intent, in case something similar would happen once again. It didn’t took long for both teenagers locking Davey’s house up, the front door, kitchen, every single window… except for one.

Davey stood outside of Parker’s bedroom as he knew he had to do it. He had to enter the room and lock the window.

Davey was trying to think of every single excuse to not do it. Parker’s room was on the second floor, right? How could zombies climb to the second door from the outside?

But there was a garden ladder just outside of Parker’s window. It wasn’t hard to climb, in fact Davey had climbed it several times in the past when he needed to enter his house without his parents noticing it; Parker had even managed to climb it up and down, so if Parker was able to, any zombie could do it as well.

But, it was only a zombie, right? Just one. It was already probably dealt with, there was no reason for him to enter his brother’s room. His little brother. His… his brother.

 

“Davey,” Bastian’s voice brought Davey back to reality, noticing just then that he was shaking and sweating.

“I’ll do it.”

Davey stood silent for seconds, nodding. He turned around, his back facing Parker’s door.

Davey felt his heart beat faster when he heard the door opening, his breathing becoming loud and shaky as he heard Bastian fidget with the window. The teenager could feel cold swear running down his face and palms, holding strongly on the wooden railing on the hallway his fingernails breaking as he dug into it, his hands shaking.

After minutes that seemed like hours to Davey, Bastian came out of the room, closing the door behind him. It wasn’t until he heard the noise of Parker’s door closing that Davey could feel his body going back to normal.

“Come on, Davey. Let’s go downstairs.”

“Y-yes.” Davey wiped the sweat off his forehead. “Let’s go.”

 

\---

 

“Remain in your homes, do not get out of your buildings, we do not know if it is just a stray one or if it’s a pack. I repeat, remain wherever you are, close your doors and windows. We will be reporting.”

Parker stared at the television for several seconds, his eyes wide. He looked around the room, about to call Sam until he remembered she said she would go and buy a couple of things, and that she wouldn’t be late, if she was in a store, the woman would probably be held up there until the issue got solved.

“What do I do, what do I do…” Parker pondered aloud, not exactly sure if there was even anything he should do, yet there was something in his rotten gut that told him that he needed to go there, to find this undead. He wasn’t a risk of being infected anyways. Or was he? Would he become a feral if he was bitten? There was no reason for him to get bitten, he is not fresh meat anymore, but it was something that Parker wondered about, but didn’t want to find out about it.

Yet, the teenager’s morbid curiosity got the best of him, but he couldn’t go as he was. Parker changed into a dark blue hoodie, grabbing a surgical mask and covering his mouth and nose, pulling his hoodie up so his eyes would be covered. Before he left, the teenager figured he couldn’t go barehanded, so in an impulse he grabbed a tire iron left in the warehouse, and left.

 

\---

 

The world was spinning around him, things getting twisted as he kept walking. He had no idea where he was, who he was; the only thing he knew is that the sun was harsh, he could feel his skin getting hotter.

His head buzzed, as he felt something dripping from the back of it. He brought his fingers to it, realizing that there was dried and recent blood dripping from there. Was it his? It had to be his, there was no other explanation, but logic said that if you have a hole in the back of your head you should be very dead, but he was still alive. Or so he thought so.

 

His stared at his blood stained palms; the blood was his from touching his head, but apart from this his skin was grey, dry and it looked terrible. He couldn’t stop shaking.

Before he could do anything else, he felt something go graze his face, blood dripping from the shallow cut. It didn’t hurt, but it still deeply disturbed the teenager.

When he focused his eyes he saw the source: people shooting at him.

 

Before they shot again, he began running, his instincts telling him he needed to get away from there fast. Several things passed through his head, but he couldn’t remember anything. He couldn’t even remember his own name, and that truly terrified him.

As he ran down an alley, he felt something hit him extremely hard on the head, even if he couldn’t feel pain the teenager felt his head buzz and his extremities going weak as he kneeled on the ground. The next thing he knew he was being dragged down a manhole, someone smaller than him doing the dragging.

When his eyes focused, he saw who had hit him: a teenager, judging from his size, with a hoodie and a surgical mask covering his head. The hooded figure raised his tire iron, about to hit him with it on the head once again.

“Wait! Please, wait! Don’t-don’t! Please!”

The figure stopped, but he didn’t put the weapon down.

“I won’t hurt you, I-I don’t know what’s going on. I just, I woke up and I found myself here and- what is going on? Who are you?”

The figure tilted his head, leaning really close to his face examining it closely.

“Are you- Oh, god.” Said the hooded figure, taking his hoodie and mask off.

 

He was young, it seemed, his skin pale like his own. The young teenager looked at him puzzled, worried and amazed.

“You, You are- oh, jeez.” The short teenager scratched the back of his neck, pacing around the sewer, leaving the tall figure to try to get up by himself. His head was still buzzing, but at least he had regained balance once again.

“What is going on? Where are we?”

“Whose blood is that?” Parker pointed at the stranger’s hands, making him stare at them once again.

“M-mine. It’s, its from, ah-“ the tall young man touched the back of his head, Parker running to peek, his eyes widening to see the big gaping hole in the back of his neck.

“Oh, so it’s true. Um.” Parker bit his lip, as the tall figure turned to stare at him.

“What is happening, who are you?! Why did those men shoot me? Are you trying to kill me?”

Parker stared at him for several seconds, scratching the back of his neck.

“Sorry to say this, but-“ Parker looked away to the wall, not wanting to face the stranger when he told him the news.

“You are already dead.”

 

He could feel his stomach drop, his reality shift as everything became glassy. It felt like he was in a dream, even if he couldn’t remember any of the dreams he ever had, as if he was floating in mist. The ground seemed very far away, the walls and floor stretching.

“Oh, no.” he said. He shook his head slowly, backing away from the small teenager.

“Oh, God no.” he grabbed his head with his hands, shaking them as he knelt on the ground.

“No, this can’t be happening, I- I don’t even remember my name, and- I’m dead? I died? I- I just, Oh, oh god…”

“Look, dude, you need to calm down.”

He looked up to Parker, tears forming on his glassy eyes. “Are you dead too?”

“Yes. Yes I am. My name is Parker. You… you can’t remember yours?”

“No, I-I just woke up with this hole on the back of my head and, and I can’t remember anything.”

“Listen, it’s okay, I’ll help you. You aren’t alone, I-“

The tall teenager eyes slowly rolled back to his skull, fainting on front of Parker.

“Uh…” Parker wasn’t actually sure what to do now; the guy was unlikely dead, well, deader than he already was. The brunette kneeled when he saw something strange on the back of the fainted teenager’s clothes, getting closer, he found a name tag.

“Antony Chainey, huh?” He looked pitifully at the fainted Chainey. “That hole on your head probably made you amnesiac. And narcoleptic, too.” Parker bit his lip, but before he could do anything, his cellphone got a call.

“Hello?”

“Are you stupid?”

“…What?”

“You probably are stupid,” Lazaro yelled at the other side of the line. “otherwise, why do you think it is a good idea to go out, on broad daylight, when there is an undead wandering in the streets?”

“How do you know I’m outside? I was really careful this time!” Parker answered back, surprised and annoyed at Lazaro scolding.

“Samantha called me worried when she heard the news report and didn’t find you in the warehouse.”

“…Oh.” Parker couldn’t be mad at all, after all if he had been in Sam’s position, he would have done the same thing. It didn’t matter anyways, it was a great thing he dared to go out.

“What could you possibly be doing outside? Do you want to be gunned down? I do not care if you are a medical marvel, if it is necessary, I will make sure-“

“Lazaro,” Parker interrupted the man, who just made him even more furious, if that was even possible.

“What?!”

“It’s an aware.”

There was silence on the line.

“…What are you talking about?”

“The undead they spotted? It’s an aware. I’m standing here in front of him, I can send you a picture if you want to.”

More silence.

“Wait wherever you are for  fifteen minutes. After that, the streets will be empty, no cops, the cameras will be out- you will have twenty minutes to bring him to the Institution. We will take it from there.”

The moment Parker heard Lazaro talk about the Institution, his mind jumped to Marianne, and his scar. He felt it burn.

“No.”

“ _What_ ”

“You aren’t opening him up. If you want him, you know where to find me.”

Before Lazaro could even answer, Parker cut the call, turning off his phone immediately not wanting Lazaro to bother him. At least he would have time to bring this Chainey guy to the warehouse, but it wouldn’t be easy; he was way too tall.

“Well,” Parker cracked his fingers, pulling his hoodie up and placing his surgical mask.

“Come on Chainey, let’s go.”


	9. Rigor Mortis

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "You went out the streets even though I had ordered you to not do it, not only that, but you went out there, in broad daylight, while there were reports of a feral.” Lazaro’s voice was breaking with rage. “Do you have a death wish? Because if you do, that can be solved very easily."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chainey learns his name, and Parker swears that he won't let Lazaro hurt him.

_Riiiing Riiiiing_

“Mom?” The teenager answered the phone, on his other hand a can of pork and beans with a spoon shoved on it, sitting cross legged on the floor of the basement.

“Hello, Davey” The teenager was surprised his father was the one to call him instead of his mother, the previous calls were made by her. For a moment, Davey felt dread on the bottom of his stomach.

“Your mother is okay,” Davey sighed in relief. “I just wanted to call you to check on you. Has anything happened?”

“No, nothing at all; me and Bastian locked all the doors and windows and just retreated here, haven’t heard anything from the news on the radio here, and we haven’t heard anything outside.”

“Good. Your mother and me will keep calling you, do not get out.”

“Yeah, dad. See you soon.”

The other man on the line was silent.

“I hope so.”

Davey sighed, as the call dropped. He continued to eat his beans from the can as he reclined his head on the wall behind him, Bastian sat down with the radio between his legs as he listened to it, all radio stations were playing reports of what had happened in the zombie apocalypse, the events… they weren’t reporting anything about the current situation, which bothered the teenager.

“Damn, they are not even saying anything!” he said, as he placed the radio on the concrete floor examining Davey’s basement.

There were two small beds in the room, the walls covered with shelves full of canned food, bottled water, clothes and blankets; whatever it was needed for survival. It reminded Bastian of those bomb shelters he had heard of in the movies, but he never had actually seen one, except that this basement didn’t have the strength to hold an actual bomb attack. If they wanted however, Davey and himself could live in there for months without starving, which was probably the intention.

 

“It’s not too big,” Davey said, taking another spoon-full of canned beans to his mouth “but it’s something.”

“Davey, you just ate a lot of popcorn and potato chips, are you seriously eating that?”

The brunette shrugged, shoving more beans on his mouth.

“Do you think it’s going to be another full apocalypse, like last time?” asked Bastian, flopping down the bed in one of the corners of the room, immediately regretting it when a dust cloud emerged from it.

“Nah, we would have heard it from the news already, and we would have heard their moaning upstairs.” Davey shrugged. “Probably just one?”

“Isn’t that strange? I mean, don’t those things travel in packs?”

“I’m not up to date with my zombiology, dude; as far as I know they can come in packs and go solo.” he continued to eat.

“Isn’t it strange though, if it isn’t a pack, then maybe it’s just… one? But isn’t that weird? There is a big deep trench around the entire city, how could it have hopped over? Unless the virus resurfaced…” Bastian kept pondering, as Davey threw the empty can of beans on the floor, as he stretched.

“It’s creepy, I’m not sure. Maybe after it is dealt with, the Institution will be on it?” Bastian said, but Davey just huffed. “I don’t know, man. I don’t trust them.”

“Why is that?” asked the teenager on the bed.

“I don’t know. I just don’t? The entire organization gives me a strange feeling.”

Bastian shrugged. He had many questions about the incident in general, but so far they wouldn’t know anything until the incident is dealt with. His eyes were heavy, and before he realized it, the teenager fell asleep.

 

\---

 

“Bastian, Bastian!”

“Mmh?”

“Bastian!”  Davey woke his friend by slightly shaking him, trying not to be too violent to the sleeping teenager. Confused, Bastian woke up as he rubbed his eyes, the light from the light-bulb hurting his sight.

“D-Davey? What’s-“

“Listen!” Said Davey, as he brought the radio up and placed it on the teenager’s bed, Bastian squinted his eyes as he tried to focus on what the radio was saying.

“The police officers have informed us that the threat has been neutralized, and that they had scouted the city and there are no more Undead. Many have their questions about what happened and why an Undead had risen in the middle of the city, the Mayor saying that we will get answers soon. A Press Conference is being planned, with Lazaro Palmer-“

Davey turned the radio off, stretching as he began to climb the stairs that lead to the door of the basement.

“Whatever it was, it was apparently ‘exterminated’ by the cops, or whatever. We can come out now.”

Bastian sighed, getting up from the bed as he followed Davey up the stairs.

“Has anything else been reported?”

“Not really, but on the internet someone said how they saw someone that looked like ‘Maggot Boy’ running around the city while it happened.” Davey fiddled with his phone, showing the image to Bastian. It wasn’t as blurry as the other images they had seen about ‘Maggot Boy’, but it was still hard to make out the figure in the picture. It had a hoodie similar to the one he has been ‘spotted’ with, and he had a tire iron in his hand, from his position it seemed like he was running around the street, but the picture was taken awkwardly, the said superhero was apparently running.

“This was posted like, one hour ago. The sighting happened about… about an hour and fifteen minutes ago, if your phone clock is right.” Mentioned Bastian, giving the phone back to Davey, who pondered.

“Maybe he killed the zombie?” Davey wondered aloud. There were too many strange things happening at the moment, and he had the feeling Maggot Boy had to do with it.

“I thought you didn’t believe in Maggot Boy?”

“I… don’t know? This is weird. I don’t even know anymore.”

He opened the door of the basement, emerging to the main floor of his house, scratching his neck. The entire experience was tiring, he couldn’t focus on much.

“I’ll have to go Davey, my mom texted me and she wants to see me.” Mentioned Bastian, as he fiddled with his phone, putting it on his pants pocket.

“Yeah man, I totally understand. You should get there before she gets mad or something.”

“Let’s talk about how strange this is later, right?” Davey nodded, as they opened the intricately locked down front door, Bastian waved and basically jogged towards his own home.

“This place has always been strange,” Davey thought aloud, as he closed his door. His phone began to ring once again, it was his mother on the line.

“I think we are just realizing how strange it is.”

He answered the phone, his mother on the verge of happy tears on the other line.

 

\---

 

“Okay Lazaro, did everything you told me to. Managed to tell the police to back off, managed to get the streets empty for the Jones kid to get to safety, and the threat has been ‘eliminated’, but people are going to want answers soon.” Noah whipped the sweat off his forehead with his palm. It had been a stressful hour, having to run around to prevent the city from chaos, not to mention the tasks Lazaro gave him. He was exhausted.

“Thank you, Noah.” Lazaro was ready to make his leave, without even informing Noah about his plans.

“Where are you going?” Fei asked, feeling that after what he had done he needed to be let on Palmer’s plans.

“Jones had found another Aware, someone like him. I need to see him, and bring him here.”

“Do you think that’s a good idea? Parker doesn’t want anything to do with the Institution anymore.”

“I don’t care. We need to assess our situation as soon as possible.”

Lazaro didn’t bother voicing his concerns to Noah, since he was already out of the room before he could say anything. Sighing, Noah rubbed his eyes. He had the feeling things would go even more downhill not only for the Institution, but for the city.

 

\---

 

“PJ, what you did was extremely-“

“Dangerous, yes Sam, I know, but… he-he is like _me_.”

Chainey shifted under the covers, slowly regaining consciousness as he heard the voices near him.

“It’s a good thing I went, too; the police would have killed him! …Again! I had a feeling and I’m glad I went.”

Chainey could recognize the voice of the figure that had dragged him to the sewer, but couldn’t recognize the female voice that was with him. He didn’t even want to get up, he continued to listen to their conversation.

“Strange how Lazaro was okay with you taking him here instead of the Institute. I would have thought he would force you to bring him there.”

“Yeah… Well, about that…” Parker’s voice was insecure, as if he knew he did something wrong.

“PJ! How do you expect Lazaro to trust you if you keep doing this?”

“Sam, you don’t understand!” Knowing their names, Chainey felt a little better. At least they weren’t just nameless strangers anymore. “I couldn’t take him there, who knows what they would have done to him? I can’t let that happen, Sam.”

Both of them went silent for some moments.

“I’m sorry, Sam.”

“…Its okay, PJ. I would do the same thing in your situation.”

 

Chainey wasn’t sure if it was time for him to go greet them. He wasn’t even sure if that was safe, as far as he knew one of them hit him and then proceeded to drag him to whatever place he was in now, but on the other hand that teenager seemed to look like him, he seemed to be already dead.

He stiffened when he heard the door softly opening, creaking. Both Samantha and Parker stood on the doorway, staring at Chainey, and they closed the door softly after.

“Do you know how he died?” Samantha asked, behind the door.

“I am pretty sure he was murdered. He has a big hole on the back of his head, his brain is kinda oozing from it, even. That’s probably why he can’t remember anything, and why he just randomly passed out.” Parker mumbled.

“Normally, Ferals die if they are shot in the brain or any damage to it is made, as well as humans. How can he be up if he has a brain injury?” asked Samantha, curious.

“Well, the injury is just like, above his nape. It wasn’t in the front but like, low in the back. Maybe that’s why he is alive?”

“I will have to check him on that behalf.  Did he seem to have more injuries?”

“No, no. I don’t think so.”

 

It was incredibly strange for Chainey to hear people talk to him like that. He didn’t even know his own name, he had absolutely no idea of what was happening apart from the fact that he was dead from a blow on the head. Murdered, most probably.

The idea of someone murdering him gave him chills, his breathing was shallow as he tried to control himself. He was starting to drift into sleep once again, but a door being slammed woke him up, but he still remained still on the bed.

The teenager could hear footsteps just outside of his bedroom, and silence, before a third voice he hadn’t heard before spoke.

“Parker,” the man seemed to greet.

“Lazaro.” Parker greeted back, but he didn’t seem happy. Chainey thought he sounded as if he was challenging the man.

“Could you please explain to me what is going on?” Lazaro asked, his voice mocking.

“You already know what is happening, Lazaro. You of all people should know.” The teenager sounded as he was challenging the man.

“I gave you an order. Why did you disobey?” Chainey had decided he did not like Lazaro by his voice alone, every time he spoke the teenager felt chills, his voice alone being too terrifying.

“Oh, please, as if I was going to take him to the Institution for him to be just another science project.” Parker spat back at the man, vile on his voice Chainey noticed.

“You went out the streets even though I had ordered you to not do it, not only that, but you went out there, in broad daylight, while there were reports of a feral.” Lazaro’s voice was breaking with rage. “Do you have a death wish? Because if you do, that can be solved very easily.”

“If I hadn’t then the police would have gunned him down, so shut up already about it.”

“Peej-“

“Do you have any IDEA of what is happening?!” Lazaro began to shout from the top of his lungs. “Do you know just HOW lucky you really are, boy?! The only reason you aren’t dead is because of me, and honestly, every day you give me another reason why that was the worst mistake I have ever made.” The shouting became more and more frantic.

“You keep saying that, then why don’t you just kill me already?! I am such a big fucking problem to you, just kill me! You keep taunting me saying how you will do it, but you don’t! So just fucking kill me!”

 

At the other side of the room, Parker stood in front of a furious Lazaro, him looming over the small teenager, but Parker wouldn’t back down. His back straight, he made himself as big as possible to confront the man, his shoulders rising up and down and breathing heavily; Lazaro scowled, his mouth twitching as he subtly showed his teeth.

“You need me.” Parker said, almost a whisper.

“Parker Jones, you are lucky I have far more pressing matters than your ridiculous tantrums.” Lazaro was extremely furious, his eyes and knuckles red.  “There is a killer on the loose, and now that you have found this new little friend of yours, I am almost certain that the killer is an Aware.”

“Are-are you suggesting the guy in that room is...?” Samantha finally spoke, being too shocked at the argument unfolding on front of her eyes she hadn’t dared to involve herself in.

“I thought that at first, but another murdered happened right after he was declared as eliminated on the news, which by at that point he was already here. The corpses were halfway eaten as well, with an ‘O’ painted on the crime scene.”

“The same killer…” Samantha whispered to herself.

“This has become Institution business, and we will need to step in. You are officially involved in the investigation. You’ll go to the murder scene and investigate anything that you see as strange, Noah is already there waiting for you.”

Parker smiled mockingly, as he chuckled.

“Knew it…”

Lazaro scowled, looking at the bedroom door the new Aware was in, and then looking back to Parker.

“I’ll take him to the Institute, and-“

“No!” Parker screamed immediately, baring his teeth as he did so. Lazaro had already expected that answer from him, he wasn’t surprised at the teenager’s reaction.

“Fine. But keep in mind that if he goes feral we will be obligated to kill him.” Lazaro looked down on Parker, a cold stare. “And that will be in your hands.”

Parker didn’t move, as he stared up to Lazaro, silent.

“You will report to Noah, who reports to me. I would take you there, but you don’t want anything to do with the Institution, right?”

With that, he slammed the door, Parker was left furious as he stared at the door that lead to the front. Samantha placed a hand on Parker’s shoulder, calming him down. Parker sighed heavily.

“Alright, time to wake this guy up.”

 

\---

 

Chainey had pretended that he was still asleep when Samantha and Parker had barged in, but at least Parker didn’t buy it, muttering a “come on, stop pretending, get up.”

“Come on guy, you heard the boss, we are on a deadline here, we gotta go to the murder place. I’ll explain everything to you then.”

“W-wait, I have questions-“ Parker grabbed Chainey’s arm, dragging him to the exit as Samantha got her things ready.

“Sorry man, but Lazaro will murder me for real now if we don’t get there fast. You’ll have to ask questions in the way there.” Said parker apologetically, as he kept dragging the multicolored hair teenager along with him.

“Noah sent me a text, he says that the police has ordered everybody to stay indoors because the killer is on the loose currently, we shouldn’t have any problem getting there.”  Samantha put her phone back on her pocket.

“Alright, come on.”

Chainey was forcefully dragged outside, the sun already setting as the public lights came on.

“Can someone please explain me what is going on? Are we dead?”

Samantha walked quickly, luckily she knew a shortcut to the murder site through some empty alleys and streets.

“Alright, yes, you are dead. It is probably a shock to you, and even more shocking, you are basically what everybody would call a ‘zombie’” Parker huffed, in a hurry to reach the murder place at a good time.

“Z-zombie?! We-we are zombies?!” Chainey said in horror.

“Pretty much!” Samantha said, almost too happy to say it; Chainey had also realized that the girl was very much alive.

“Okay, so, what about the other zombies? Are there any more zombies here like us? Are they all like us? And what’s the Institution? Who is Lazaro? What is this place?!” Chainey was basically jogging trying to keep up the pace with Samantha and Parker.

“This will be a long story, but you must hear it.” Samantha continued to speak as she turned around alleys and such. “A long time ago, the undead outbreak happened…”

 

\---

 

Samantha managed to finish the story of the city, Lazaro Palmer and how the Institute was created when they reached Noah at the murder site; the man was already waiting for them, having men in suits and guns around the area in case anything happened, something which made Parker and Chainey nervous and self-conscious.

“Oh, you aren’t actually late, hello!” Noah greeted them. Chainey felt uncomfortable at how nonchalant the man was considering the gore that was in front of them.

“I assume that’s your new friend. Alright then, I would greet you in a more suited way, but Lazaro is ready to have my head on a stake, so let’s proceed.”

“What does Lazaro actually expect us to do, anyways? We are not CSI or anything, we know nothing about murder investigation.” Parker asked, as he approached the car where the murder had taken place. He felt disturbed at how appetizing the blood was to him, but he managed to shove that feeling deep down his heart.

Noah simply shrugged, not exactly sure if the Awares were actually needed at the moment, but it was his boss orders, so he couldn’t do much about it.

“Just tell us if you see anything weird. Alright, you go there…” Noah continued to instruct the strange suited men to search around the area, as Chainey approached Parker. It didn’t take long to for the tall teenager to understand the story behind the city and the ‘zombie’ apocalypse, but there were still so many things going on at the moment, he had no idea what he should be doing.

“Hey, Parker, right?” He said towards the small teenager, who peeked inside of the car, burrowing his eyebrows as he felt vile on his throat.

“You can call me PJ.” Said the brunette, turning around the car, refusing to stare at the horror show; he wondered how he looked like after he died, the thought bothering him.

“PJ, I have a question.” Parker looked up to the tall teenager, he easily towered over the brunette which was intimidating, but apart from that Chainey didn’t seem too dangerous himself.

“What’s my name?”

Parker felt incredible guilt as he had realized they didn’t actually tell him his name, face-palming as he groaned.

“Oh, jeez; I’m so sorry, we were in such a hurry I completely forgot, I’m so sorry!” Chainey gave a small smile, not mad at all. At least the guy felt sorry for not having told him his name.

“I think your name is Anthony Chainey; that is what the nametag of your hoodie says anyways, so I am pretty positive that is your name.”

Chainey felt a weight lift from his shoulders when he heard his name. Anthony Chainey. _Anthony Chainey_. That name was his, and the teenager already felt so much better after learning his name.

“Look Chainey… today has been really chaotic for you, right?” Parker began to walk away from the car, Chainey following behind. “You just woke up from death, people try to shoot you, then this weird guy comes and screams, and then I drag you here with dead bodies without even explaining much about what is happening.”

“That’s… yeah, it has been pretty chaotic, yeah.” Chainey said as he scratched his head, feeling more dried blood on it.

“I know this stuff. I had to learn on my own, how to deal with this; I can teach you so you don’t have to go through what I went through. You don’t have to worry, I-I have your back. I won’t let Lazaro hurt you.”

“Wait,” Chainey said, slightly surprised. “I thought the Institution was a good place?”

“Yeah,” Parker felt the scar on his chest burn. “Don’t believe that. They might be good, but their methods are anything but.” Parker sighed, looking around him. Samantha was talking to Noah while pointing to Chainey and him, she was probably informing them of how Parker found him. Parker closed his eyes, inhaling deeply, turning to Chainey.

“Sorry for today, Chainey. I promise tomorrow will be better.”

Chainey smiled about to say something, but Parker saw what seemed like a decorative piece of the building being thrown to Chainey’s position.

 

“Chainey-“ Parker tackled Chainey away, both having managed to dodge the rubble by just centimeters and landing harshly on the concrete floor. “Are you-“

“Yo, Maggot Boy!”

Parker eyes widened as they traveled to the roof of the building, a small hooded figure having been the same place the rubble was thrown off; Parker couldn’t see very well, but he could have sworn the figure was smiling.

“I was waiting for you!” With that, the figure left.

Parker cursed himself as he got up from the ground, grabbing the tire iron and ignoring Samantha and Noah shouts to him; he simply ran towards the alleys without a real plan.

The brunette ran as hard as he could, trying to follow the hooded figure that had previously tried to murder Chainey; he saw the perpetrator jump the roofs, Parker taking initiative and climbing the emergency ladders around the buildings as fast he could.

In doing so, he had lost the individual who was nowhere to be seen across the rooftops; Parker was breathing sharply, surprised at how fast and strong he had become ever since he died; he knew he was stronger than a regular human, but he didn’t get to test it that much just yet.

His phone rang, slightly startling Parker, fiddling to get it with shaky fingers.

“PJ? What happened?” Asked the woman on the other side of the line, while Noah barked orders at the men to search the perimeter, giving them the brief description of the individual they saw.

“I… I tried to follow him up the rooftops, but he managed to escape.” Parker ran fingers through his hair. “I am pretty sure this guy is an Aware- I haven’t seen no human that tiny being this fast.”

“Did you get to see him?”

“A little, but I don’t think-“

He felt an extraordinary force shove him from behind, making the teenager stumble on the roof and slip through the roof. Parker managed to hold on to the edge of the tall building, but his cellphone fell to the concrete, shattering with great force.

Looking up, Parker eyes widened as he saw the person who had tried to kill Chainey previously, and was currently trying to kill him.

“PJ? What a ridiculous name. Does it stand for pajamas, or what?”

The figure was short, even shorter than him Parker figured, his face was stitched from cheek to cheek in the middle, his hair was straight and red. He was smiling, but one of his front teeth was broken.

“Man, I thought Maggot Boy would have a cool name, but PJ is just way too sad.” He laughed. “But again, to be honest, I didn’t actually expect him to be real. I guess it was a good thing I stayed there to wait for you, huh?”

Parker huffed, he tried to climb up the roof once again, but the red head stepped on one of his hands, forcing Parker to let go from that hand, dangerously hanging to dear un-life with his other hand.

“Not so fast, princess. Come on, man, I see you and I think, well, this is too big of a fucking disappointment. I expected you to be some sort of big dangerous guy but, this?” He placed his food on Parker’s other hand, not crushing it just yet.

“I don’t even know how you are still alive.” His grin turned serious, looking down at Parker with hate. “Well, that can be fixed very easily.”

“You-“

“Goodbye, PJ.”

He stomped on the brunette’s hand, forcing him to let go from the ledge. Parker saw how the killer’s face zoomed out at high-speed, the wind whispering to him as he fell faster to the ground.

 

Owen turned around even before PJ landed on the ground, severely disappointed at ‘Maggot Boy’s performance.

“What a disappointment.”

 

Parker became aware, looking around where he was he noticed he was in the street. He was on something hard but bent, after inspecting it the teenager realized he landed on top of a car on the street, somehow not activating the alarm. He looked at his limbs, and he looked pretty good in general apart from the slight blood coming out of his ears; he jumped off the car, feeling dizzy as he did so. He put his hands on his head, as he began to walk under the light of the streetlights, his brain pounding against his skull while he tried to think of the situation.

“Lazaro will be _so_ happy to know he was right.”


	10. Stranger Danger

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “He threw off me off a building, Sam.” Parker said with a serious voice. “I am actually surprised I am still alive. Un-alive. You get it.” Parker waved his hand in annoyance every time he remembered he wasn’t actually alive.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Parker and Chainey are sent in a mission, Lazaro trying to find out how to placate the city.

Samantha kept pacing back and forth in the warehouse, her cellphone in her hand as she continued to try to contact Parker, but it was useless, the call wouldn’t even get through.

The woman didn’t know what happened, she was talking with Parker only to hear struggle, and a loud crack; after that the call went dead. Noah had already deployed workers to try to find him and the killer, but even so Samantha had a terrible feeling in her gut.

Chainey sat on the couch in the middle of the room, twiddling his fingers not exactly sure what to do.

“Too long has passed.” Samantha muttered to herself, staring at the phone’s clock; an hour had passed since the call was cut. “He should have been here long ago.”

Samantha bit her lip.

Chainey frowned with worry, as he got up approaching Samantha calmly, trying to think on what to say.

“I’m sure he is fine, he just late, uh…” Chainey got very embarrassed all of sudden. “I’m really sorry, I don’t think I caught your name?”

Samantha smiled weakly. “Samantha, but you can call me Sam.”

“Sam, I’m pretty sure PJ is okay. He just got delayed.”

Chainey wasn’t even sure if he believed that, too many things happened today to the teenager for him to believe things were just going to be fine. He wasn’t even sure what ‘fine’ entailed.

 

Shuffling was heard outside, someone raising the metal curtain that lead to the warehouse.

Samantha gasped when she saw who had opened it: Parker.

The brunette seemed to be struggling with opening the sheet, prompting Chainey to run and held it open long enough for Parker to pass through. He was a mess, his hoodie was littered with dried blood, rubble and dust, his hair messy with dried blood crawling out of his ears and nose. Samantha noticed he had a slight limp as well.

“Hey, Sam. Sorry I’m late.” He smiled softly, Samantha rushing to his side with open arms.

“PJ, what-what happened?” Samantha put her hands on her shoulders, her worry still the same.

“I… I saw the killer. He threw me off a building.”

 

Samantha and Chainey’s eyes widened in shock prompting Parker to shrug it off.

“I’m okay, I landed on top of a car; just need to sleep it off.” He passed his fingers through his hair, dirt and rubble coming out of it.

“Anyways, Lazaro was right. This is an Aware we are dealing with.” The brunette rubbed his eyes. “A very dangerous one.”

 “PJ, you need to go and lay down! I’ll call Noah and tell him what you told me. Chainey, it has been a very long day for you…” Samantha bit her lip as she became more nervous.

“Are-are you hungry?” she asked the tall teenager.

Now that she was mentioning it, Chainey actually felt hungry, but it felt different. Like a scratch at the back of his stomach.

“Y-yes.” Even if he didn’t know what was going on, he had the feeling that the question was taboo.

“Okay, Chainey, we-“

“Sam,” Parker put his hand on Samantha’s shoulder, looking at her apologetically. “I’ll handle it. Go call Noah.”

“Parker-“

“Please.”

Samantha looked at the brunette sadly, but after a while she nodded. She scurried off to what Chainey presumed was her own bedroom, probably to give them privacy.

In the meantime, Parker took a very big plastic box out of the fridge (which had the letters PJ scrawled on the front door with what seemed like sharpie), one of many, and placed it on a cheap wooden table.

“Look, Chainey. I told you I was going to help you through this, right? Through death.” Parker seemed to be very tired. Chainey felt wrong, he knew the teenager was hiding something.

“It doesn’t seem that hard, I don’t even remember being alive.” Chainey chuckled nervously, not sure what the teenager was going at.

“Look. We are Awares, basically zombies that don’t look that nasty and that can think for ourselves. There is a really big factor that determines wherever we are Awares or Ferals.”

Chainey tensed, his eyes traveling to the plastic box sitting on the table.

“Its… its our hunger.”

Parker swallowed.

“We constantly need to eat, if we don’t eat we become ferals, and that’s more dangerous than anything. When-when we go feral, we lose control of who we are, we stop thinking like people and we just think about eating.” Parker sighed. “So basically to not eat we have to eat. It’s… ridiculous.”

“Why do I have the feeling you aren’t talking about pizza and burgers?”

“The… the thing we have to eat is, well.” Parker gently shoved the plastic box towards Chainey.

“Human meat.”

 

They both went silent, Chainey touching the cold box with shaky fingers, opening it. He swallowed when he saw what was inside.

What looked like intestines were inside of the box, the blood having coagulated around them and creating some sort of morbid cold soup.

“You have to eat, Chainey.” Parker’s voice tried to be calm, but the teenager felt himself cracking. “If you don’t eat, you become one of them.”

Chainey stared at the box contents, still silent.

“You- It’s easier if you pretend its cow. Or if you just close your eyes and do it. I- ugh.” Parker couldn’t do this; he had already managed to convince himself that eating human meat wasn’t as bad as it sounded in his situation, but explaining it to someone else made him feel like the first time he had to deal with it.

“It’s awful, I know.” He rubbed his face once again, it was starting to become a tic of his.

“You are not alone on this.”

“Okay.” Chainey whispered, as he grabbed the guts with his shaky hands; he breathed heavy as he got the thing near to his mouth, his eyes only focusing on the intestines in his hands.

He opened his mouth, taking a bite of it.

It tasted good.

 

\---

 

The next day, Samantha had examined Parker’s back to see if there were any injuries; he had a pretty big gash going on his shoulder and some bruises. Samantha stitched the wound on the teenager’s back, then going to some cuts Parker had on the back of his legs.

“Alright, all stitched up!” She said, patting the teenager on the back. Parker nodded, still tired from last night’s encounter, several thoughts going through his head.

“Did you talk to Lazaro?” He asked, getting up from the chair he was sitting on and putting on his shirt once again. Chainey was sitting on the couch next to them watching television, his eyes going to the pair when Parker stood up; Chainey’s eyes widened when he spotted a gigantic scar in the middle of Parker’s torso, but he immediately turned back to watch his show before Parker had realized that he saw it.

“Yes, he was pretty disturbed he was right.” Samantha added, as she put the first aid kit contents inside of a box.

“Weird, Laz normally loves being right.” Parker chuckled, flopping on the couch right next to Chainey, picking up the remote and changing channels; Chainey bit his lip when the teenager got next to him, remembering the scar he sported. Did Chainey had a similar scar? No, no he didn’t, he would have noticed a scar that big on his chest when he changed that morning.

“He wants you and Chainey to go and investigate possible places where he could attack.” Samantha said, leaning on the couch from behind between the two boys.

“What, and what if we found him? Are we supposed to go all Batman on him, or what?” said Parker, turning the television off.

“He probably believes you two are capable of handling with him.” Samantha shrugged.

“He threw off me off a building, Sam.” Parker said with a serious voice. “I am actually surprised I am still alive. Un-alive. You get it.” Parker waved his hand in annoyance every time he remembered he wasn’t actually alive.

“Yeah, I told him that but he still wants you to go and check things out.” Samantha said, her tone suggesting that she was as confused as Parker.

“Wait, didn’t this guy chew you because you went out on broad daylight?” Chainey perked up, his head turning towards the couple, his freshly stitched head feeling numb; Samantha had stitched it earlier, worried that if they let it leak too much Chainey would either become feral or just die. “Why did he want us to go out all of sudden?”

“Lazaro is very weird, but I am sure he has his reasons. In fact, I was informed that he and Noah will give a press conference this afternoon.”

 

Both teenagers were surprised by this. “A press conference? You don’t think it’s because of Chainey and yesterday’s panic, right?”

“Most likely. For now, Lazaro told me that if you don’t do what he told you to, you can get ready to be kicked out of the city to go and live with your feral brethren.”

Parker chuckled, while Chainey began to actually wonder what would happen if a Feral saw them, would they try to kill them like if they were alive? For some reason, Chainey wasn’t too keen on knowing the answer at the moment.

“Alright, alright, we are going. We’ll be back before the press conference.” Parker stood up as he went to grab another change of clothes; he had been seen far too much with his hoodie, he needed to at least change the colors. “I want to see what Lazaro has to say about all this mess. Should be fun. Come on Groot, you should cover yourself up, you don’t want anyone to see your stitches and deadness. Also you should wear a car deodorant for the smell.”

Chainey laughed at this, but Parker shook his head. “No, seriously” he said while he pulled his collar to reveal the pine shaped deodorant hanging from his neck. He grabbed another one from the box, and threw it to Chainey’s direction.

 “Come on, don’t you love the smell of a brand new car?” Parker laughed, as he put his pale grey hoodie up, a surgical mask and sunglasses on.

“Let’s go zombie hunting.”

 

\---

 

“Did you hear? Lazaro Palmer is going to have a press conference this afternoon, he didn’t say of what but I assume it is going to be about yesterday.” Bastian threw the soccer ball to the air as he walked, to catch it when it came down walking down the sidewalk.

“Huh, you were right then.” Davey mentioned, not paying much attention at the ball Bastian was playing with. “I honestly thought they would just sweep it under the rug or whatever.”  Davey waved his hand.

“We need to go to the mall, coach asked me to go and check prices on some soccer equipment.”

“Why can’t he do that himself?”

“He had a ‘parent’s reunion’”

“So a date.”

Bastian laughed. “Yeah, pretty much. Come on, it isn’t that far away.”

Davey shrugged. “Yeah alright, I don’t have anything else to do anyways.”

 

The walk to the mall was silent, not many people were on the street as they probably were inside of their homes waiting for the press conference to happen. Even so, the mall was still packed, as if nothing wrong was going on; but Davey shouldn’t complain about how stupid these people were for hanging out in the mall when there was a killer out there, after all he was doing the exact same thing.

“We shouldn’t stay here too long, Baz. There is a killer on the run.” Davey said, lowering his head slightly as he passed people that were acting as if nothing was happening.

“Yeah, I know. It’ll be quick, then we can chill out at my house.” The teenager said, walking through the hallways as he tried to remember where the sports store was.

Davey bit his lip. Maybe he was just exaggerating, as long as they kept in a populated place it wouldn’t be as dangerous, but he still wanted to get out of there as soon as possible. Something about the mall and the people just seemed… off.

“Hey, it’s in the second floor, come on.”

Davey followed silently, his eyes moving through the crowd as he didn’t pay much attention to where he was going.

His eyes passed two strange figures; one very tall and the other one very tiny (well, they looked tiny compared to the taller one), the small one wearing a pale grey hoodie and what seemed a surgical mask.

At first, Davey’s eyes just passed them like nothing, but his eyes widened as his stomach grew cold, immediately turning towards these people he just saw, but they were already gone, as if they had just been a hallucination. Davey didn’t even know why it caught his attention, he had looked at the figure for about a second, but it was as if his brain had told him he needed to look at them.

 

He stopped walking for several seconds, his eyes searching for said figure, but he couldn’t find anything. The brunette was brought back from his trance when Bastian put his hand on the teenager’s shoulder.

“Davey? You okay?” Bastian asked, to what Davey shook his head.

“Yeah, I’m fine. I feel like I am seeing ghosts or something.” Davey smiled weakly. “Come on, let’s go, this place gives me the chills.”

Bastian nodded, as they made their way to the store; however Davey felt nauseous, his hands shaking and his forehead sweating as he continued to walk. He didn’t feel well, the encounter with the strange hallucination leaving him exhausted and sick, but the brunette didn’t know why.

“Bastian, I-“ Davey wiped his forehead with his hand. “I don’t feel well.” Bastian immediately got worried, turning to his friend his full attention to him. “I- I think I should go home.”

“Do you want me to take you home?” Davey shook his head.

“No, you have your things to do- I can go there myself. I just-“ He looked around to all the people in the crowded mall. “I can’t stand being here. I’m sorry.”

Bastian smiled. “Don’t worry man, its okay, I totally understand! Are you sure you can get there without help? I don’t mind.”

“No Bas, you have things to do, I’ll be okay.”

Bastian’s mouth twitched slightly, as if he wasn’t sure if it was a good idea, but he figured Davey needed some alone time. He nodded.

“Alright man, see you tomorrow at school. Take care, okay?”

“Yeah, later Bas.” Said Davey, as he waved goodbye to his friend; he felt bad for abandoning him in the middle of the mall, but the teenager felt like he was going to puke at any moment now, he needed to be away from people.

 

Parker stopped all of sudden in a corner of one of the hallways, looking back towards where he came from, not exactly sure if he saw what he thought he saw.

“Peej? What’s wrong?” asked Chainey, towering over him with his face covered with a scarf, and a hat covering his head. “Did you see the guy?”

“No, no, not him…” Parker said as he continued to look at the way he came from, but he softly turned around as he shook his head. “No, it’s nothing. I thought I saw someone, but… I was wrong.” Chainey continued to look back at Parker, not entirely sure if he was being truthful.

“Come on giant, let’s go.” The teenager continued to walk through the hallways, as Chainey shrugged and followed close.

 

\---

 

Bastian had promised himself that he wouldn’t take too long looking at the sports equipment, but he just liked everything he saw too much, when he finished his errands he noticed that it was pretty late, the press conference started about half hour ago already.

“Oh, crap.” The teenager said to himself, as he hurried himself to a television store, the many screens displaying the conference. “Oh, damnit. It already started!” he muttered, as he tried to make sense to whatever was happening on the screen, but it was pretty hard to; Lazaro Palmer was nowhere to be seen, reporters screaming questions at his protégée making it impossible for anyone that hadn’t seen it from the beginning to understand what was happening.

“Oh, damn!” Bastian frowned, crossing his arms in exasperation as he realized he would make it home very late at this rate.

“Oh- hey, did you manage to catch anything of what they said?” Bastian said to a figure he noticed was staring at the television sets as well, with what seemed to be a cat-fox-weird mask. Probably a child, from his size.

“Probably not, right? Rats.” He ran his fingers through his bicolored hair, biting his lip.

“No, sorry. Just got here.” The figure replied back, with a childish voice.

“Yeah… don’t worry about it, they will probably make reruns of it.” Bastian sighed in defeat.

“I should get home already, it’s pretty late; mom will kill me.”

“Oh, I know an exit to the main street down this way.” The kid said, Bastian lighting up at the fact that it seemed he wouldn’t have to cross the entire mall to get to the main entrance.

“Oh, great, thanks! This mall just opened like, last summer, I’m still not used to it.”

“I can show you there,” the kid said. “I was going to go to a costume party near there, anyways.”

“Oh, that would be great!” Bastian claimed, as he began to follow the kid in the cat-ear hoodie.

“Heh, you shouldn’t talk to strangers, kid. That’s pretty dangerous, even more considering the, well you know.”  Bastian chuckled in awkwardness as he walked with the kid.

“What’s your name?” said the kid.

“Bastian.”

“My name is Owen,” said the masked kid, smiling under his mask.

“Now we aren’t strangers anymore.”


	11. Post Mortem

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “They exist, we call them the Aware.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Parker asks Chainey to trust him, while Lazaro begins to wonder about his motives.

“They exist, we call them the Aware.”

These words echoed through the room, Samantha, Parker and Chainey staring at the television with shock as they saw their “boss” declare that they do in fact exist. Barely anything else could be heard, the flurry of questions drowning Lazaro’s voice, who simply left the scene.

“Um…” Parker said, as he turned to Samantha, the redhead doing the same and both staring at each other in disbelief. “Wow?” “Yeah… Wow.” Samantha replied.

“Do you this means we can stop disguising ourselves?” Chainey asked, his disbelief as big as the other two.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Parker said. “If that ever happens, it would take years. People aren’t going to like that Lazaro has two zombies hanging around the Institution; they will flip if they know we are just chilling in the city.”

“But, we aren’t dangerous.” Chainey replied, slightly hurt at the notion that people could be scared of him.

“Yeah, but people don’t know that; and besides, people probably won’t like the fact that we need to eat human flesh to not turn feral.” Parker shook his head. “No one does.”

“Parker is right, Chainey. I am actually very surprised that Lazaro declared it, people will get worried; things could be very wrong very quickly.”

Chainey pondered, knowing they were right, but there was something still bugging him. “Do you think this is due the Sovereign Killer being an aware?”

Both Parker and Samantha went silent. They hadn’t considered this, but it was most likely the reason. “Huh, yeah, probably.”

“Maybe Lazaro did it so people wouldn’t find out themselves? After all, I think it’s better for the Institution to just say outright what the deal with Awares are, so people won’t find out and believe they are hiding something.” Chainey deduced.

He was pretty much right, but Parker scowled. “What are you, part of their fanclub? Whatever the Institution is doing, they need to step their game up.”

“What are you talking about? That makes no sense.” Chainey asked, slightly confused.

“I… don’t trust the Institution.”

“Why not?”

“Look- I don’t, and if you are smart, you shouldn’t really get near them either.”

“Why?” Chainey asked without malice, Samantha eyes traveling to the floor as she got nervous about Parker’s reaction to the question. Ever since they met, they hadn’t talked about the vivisection, Samantha hoping that one day Parker would open up to her and talk about what he felt, but so far he hadn’t done that and she respected his privacy; however Chainey was new, he had no idea of anything that had happened previously.

Parker eyes widened with a scowl. “Just…”

Without thinking, Parker scratched the start of his chest scar. “Call it a hunch. Just trust me, okay?” Parker stared at Chainey with intense sad eyes, the taller one feeling bad for asking, he could already tell it was a pretty touchy subject.

“Okay, Peej. I trust you.” He said with a soft smile.

“…Thanks” Parker replied, getting up from his place.  “I’m scouting the streets. You coming with?” he directed the question to Chainey. “Oh, okay.”

“I’ll be waiting outside.” Saying that, Parker left the room; standing up Chainey felt how he was tugged in the arm by Samantha.

“Chainey, I need to talk to you.” Said the woman slightly concerned.

“Oh, sure Sam, what’s up?” he asked, having the feeling that the conversation was going to be about Parker.

“Look… Parker, he…” Samantha swallowed. “He has his reasons to not trust the Institute, and please don’t bug him about it. You need to remember that people sometimes have secrets for a reason.”

Chainey looked at her puzzled, but then nodded. “I understand.”

“Okay, then. You should get going.” Samantha patted Chainey’s hand.

“Alright, see you later Sam.”

“Be careful!” she shouted. With that, she was left alone once again in the warehouse.

 

\---

 

Davey woke up dizzy, he didn’t even remembered falling asleep on his bed. His things were sprawled on the carpet of his room, pencils and notebooks thrown around; the rest of his things strangely neat. He felt like a mess; his head was slightly pounding, and he felt like someone punched him in the head.

“Ugh… fuck.” He muttered, as he grabbed his phone to check what hour it was; the screen showing the digital clock at Eight P.M., but even if it was so late he still felt extremely tired. It was going to be one of those nights.

Something that was weird to him is that he had no messages; ever since the killer began his murder spree, the teenagers sent each other messages whenever one of them reached home, just in case. It was mostly Bastian’s idea, but Davey had to admit that it did make him feel safer.

Davey sent the message that he got home about three hours ago, before taking the nap, but there was nothing but radio silence from Bastian.

“ _Dude u ok?_ _Where r u?”_ he texted his friend, waiting several minutes for an answer, but there was none. He hadn’t even been online ever since the morning, which puzzled the brunette.

 _“Maybe he forgot to charge it…?”_ he thought to himself, but it was too unlikely. Bastian was messy when it came to many things, but those messages were one of the few things he always did no matter what.

He tried calling him, but the call wouldn’t even go through, as if the phone was turned off. Davey passed his fingers through his hair, feeling his stomach going cold. Before he could call his phone home, the phone rang, Davey’s mother answering from the living room.

Curious, Davey opened the door of his bedroom, listening as how his mother answered the phone.

“Hello? Mary, what’s wrong?” his mother asked; Davey recognized the name, the woman being Bastian’s mom, he leaned over the handrail to try to listen in better, but the teenager could only hear his mother’s voice.

“Mary calm down, I can’t understand you…”

She went silent, covering her mouth with her palm, slightly shaking; Susan noticed her son leaning to listening in, but rather than angry, she seemed worried.

“Davey, was Bastian with you today?” She asked, her voice breaking. Davey bit his lip, knowing where this was going but refusing to accept it.

“Y-yes. We went to the mall together, but I felt sick so I came home…”

He suddenly had realized what he had done, and what was happening; he didn’t want to believe it, his hands began to shake as his mother turned to the phone.

“No, not since the afternoon…” she clutched the speaker with her fingers.

“Davey, Bastian is missing.”

Davey gave a weak shaking smile.

“I know.” His chuckle was sick. “I know…”

 

\---

 

“Alright Bas, brace for impact!”

Bastian woke up from his unconsciousness by being violently thrown to the floor, hitting the left side of his body hardly and getting covered in scratches. Regaining consciousness wasn’t pleasant at all; his head pounded along with a loud buzz, he couldn’t see anything. He realized the severity of his situation when he tried to move around, only to find his wrists and feet tied up very tightly, even moving hurt.

“Mmph!” he tried to speak, but his mouth was covered with tape, even if he couldn’t see anything his eyes widened at the sudden realization.

“Aw, come on man. You know you can’t trust no one these days. Didn’t your parents teach you to not talk to strangers?” The kid’s voice echoed through the room, Bastian trying his hardest to get up, which prompted Owen to kick the teenager on the stomach as hard as possible, knocking the air out of him, tears coming out of the teenager’s face.

“Oh, actually never mind! We _are not_ strangers anymore, are we Bas?”

Owen laughed, putting his feet over the teenager torso, turning him around so he could inspect him better.

“Man, I gotta admit, you are taking this too well, Bas. Normally at this part people are crying and pissing themselves, specially _your_ type.” Owen said this last part with spite on his voice. “But what do you know, you seem different from what I thought. Oh well.”

Owen pulled out a knife from its leather sheath making a metallic noise, Bastian cringing when he heard it. “Not gonna matter anymore.”

 

Owen got close to Bastian’s face, the teenager able to feel the kid’s cold breath on him; he reeked of mustiness and cat’s piss, the cold blade touching his cheek.

“Aw man, you got a pretty face, you know?” Owen grabbed his face with his palms, moving it around as he inspected it. “Terrible fucking hair, though. The wolverine style was already unpopular back then, dude.”

Bastian could feel the tip of the knife slightly piercing his cheek, drawing blood.

“Sure would be a shame if something happened to it…”

Bastian locked his jaw as he felt the knife going across his cheek, not deep enough to kill him but it still burned, gasping when the metal left his skin.

“Imagine it, ‘Hot Stud gets face opened up before death’, wouldn’t that make great headlines?” Owen played with the knife on his hands, licking the blood off it; Bastian began to trash around trying to get up, prompting Owen to kick him even harder multiple times in the stomach until the teenager gave up.

“Oh, why are you in such a hurry, Bastian? I’m not going anywhere, and you aren’t either, so why don’t we just enjoy each other’s company for a while?”

The teenager tried to scream but his voice was muffled by the tape; no matter how hard he tried only gibberish would come out.

“Don’t worry, Bas. I made sure we had some private time together! No one will hear you here, I don’t think anybody even knows this place exists! So we don’t have to worry about anyone crashing our party. See how thoughtful I am!”

It was then when the youngster began crying, tears seeping through the cloth covering his eyes, slightly shaking.

“Oh Bas, don’t be sad, you’ll be on the news! Didn’t you always want to be on the news?”

Owen ran his fingers through the teenager’s hair, making him shudder with fear.

“Come on, I bet you are the kind of guy they will write a documentary or whatever about, you’ll be famous! That is more that you would have achieved alive!”

The redhead smiled when he saw something sticking out of Bastian’s pocket.

“Oooh, what is this?” he said, grabbing the bicolored teenager’s wallet and opening it.

“I bet you have millions of girl’s phone numbers here, right? Maybe a couple of unused condoms, that’s how it is with your kind of guys, right? People will cry at your grave, shout to the sky, other clichés...”

Bastian remained silent, but it wasn’t like he could say anything anyways which amused Owen.

“Oh, what is this?” he took a folded picture in the wallet, unfolding it. “Some school sweetheart? Maybe a picture of your parents? I wonder what-“

Owen eyes widened in shock when he unfolded the picture; in the image there were three people and it seemed like they were in some sort of soccer game. Bastian and another teenager were wearing soccer uniforms, but what caught his attention was the third person in the picture.

Maggot Boy.

“Oh, how interesting.” Owen could feel his smile widen at the development of events. Oh, what would be sweeter than to kill Maggot boy’s own friend? To leave his lifeless corpse on PJ’s doorstep? Or maybe just mutilating him, leaving him in the street for the world to see; the possibilities were endless and Owen didn’t know where to start, but he could feel his fingers shaking in excitement.

“Oh, Bastian. You are _so_ lucky, you know?” Owen folded the photograph once again, putting it in his pocket.

“Don’t you worry, you aren’t going to die today, pretty-boy. Nah, that just isn’t fun at all. I have more in plan for you.” He ripped the tape from the teenager’s mouth, Bastian proceeding to cough and hiss.

“You-you are letting me leave?” he asked his voice breaking down.

“Well, yes and no. You see, I really can’t afford you forgetting about this little encounter,” Owen fiddled with the knife in his hands. “Then what would be the point?”

He pushed Bastian to the ground once again, the teenager landing against his back hard.

“Nah, I’m going to give you a little reminder.”

“Then, why did you-“ Before Bastian could finish, Owen shoved the tip of the knife on the inside of the soccer player’s left arm.

“Oh, I just love hearing the screams.” He sliced through the skin, terrible burn sensation traveling up to the teenager’s arm, passing out before Owen could finish the job.

 

\---

 

He woke up with his head feeling hot, his entire body aching and his arms burning; whatever place he was in was too dark for his eyes to adjust, for a second he believed he had died, until the smell of garbage reached his nose. His cheek was hot, as well as his left arm; he tried to lift it but immediately regretted it as it burnt to do so, touching the inside of his arm with his finger and feeling crusted blood on his skin.

Bastian took a deep breath, feeling how the tears began to form, his cheek burning from the cut he had on it, his tears falling freely from his face.

Struggling, he opened the dumpster he was thrown into, the streetlight providing him with enough illumination for him to examine himself. The inside of his arm had been cut, but it looked like the killer knew how to cut it just so Bastian wouldn’t bleed to death. He was covered in bruises, his fingers dirty and smelling of blood and garbage.

The teenager focused his eyes, his gaze finally landing on what was written on the inside of the garbage container with what Bastian assumed was his own blood.

_“See ya later, Bas!”_

The teenager leaned over, crying.

He was alive.

 

\---

 

“I don’t get it, Lazaro.” Noah said as he went through the papers of his desk, Lazaro pacing around the room. After the press conference and having explained Noah why it was better for him to tell the truth before people realized it themselves, he was pretty exhausted but was too wary to take a rest.

“Not to be a total asshole, God knows I’m not like you, but you kept saying how you couldn’t use Parker for research anymore.” Noah shuffled through some more papers, putting them neatly on the desk.

“You have another one, and yet you don’t make a move. It doesn’t seem so much like you.”

“Parker doesn’t want me near him.” Lazaro replied, staring out of the window. It was getting late.

“And that stops you because…?”

Lazaro didn’t answer, but Noah leered at him not sure what was going through his mind.

“I really, really don’t get you Lazaro. You keep telling that kid and everybody around here that you will kill him if he steps out of line, but he has managed to make you abandon research around him and even manages to stop you from doing anything to him. Are you seriously just bluffing?”

“I…” Lazaro struggled to find the words. “I don’t know. I want to just dispose of him; if I do, then I can do whatever I want with Chainey, but I can’t bring myself to do it.”

“Oh, so you actually thought about it, how sweet of you.”

Lazaro shoot his protégée a hate glare, but Noah was too used to that already, he simply continued to stare at Noah looking for answers.

“Ever since Marianne did her little ‘act’, we have lost his trust. We needed that trust, Noah. We can’t get close to Parker now because he won’t trust us to protect him anymore.”

“Why don’t you just snatch him then?”

Lazaro turned surprised at Noah, who seemed to leer at his boss angrily. “That is what you would have done before. What changed?”

“I’m not a monster, Noah.” Lazaro barked back at his assistant, scowling at the suggestion that he would go that far.

“Well sorry, but sometimes I am not even sure anymore.”

Lazaro rubbed his eyes. “Go home, Noah. It’s late. Tomorrow will be a very long day.”

Noah chuckled, not complaining about leaving. Before he left, he shouted at Lazaro to take his pills. After that, Palmer was left alone in the office, staring at the city at his feet.

His mind jumped to Claire, in that bed, struggling against her bonds; the image of Parker being tied up in that surgery table reminded Palmer too much of her.

He sighed. He needed to rest.


	12. Hooked on a Feeling

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I should be dead.”  
> “Do you mean when that guy shoved you from the roof?”  
> “When the truck hit me, I should have died.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Davey regrets leaving his friends behind, while Parker realizes his death doesn't mean his friends will be always safe.

“Sorry- excuse me- my bad-“

Davey shoved his way into the hospital, pushing and shoving whoever dared to come into his view as he made his way to the reception.

“Good morning, I-“ Davey had to stop and catch his breath, his legs hurting by how much he had run. The moment he got a call from Bastian’s mother telling him he was in the hospital, Davey made his way there practically running without even realizing it; it wasn’t until he reached the reception that he realized how stupid of him was to just run all the way there, but there was no time now.

“I- I’m looking for a guy. Bastian Nightingale; was admitted at about, three am I think? Do-Do you know where he is?” The teenager was having a hard time speaking, still not catching his breath. The lady on the front desk stared at him curiously.

“Sorry, I cannot disclose that information to strangers.” Said the blonde lady at the other side of the desk.

“No, no, I’m his friend. His best friend? I can call his mom if you want, did-did they mention me? Davey Jeremiah Jones? Is-is it like a list?”

“Oh,” replied the woman as she typed in her computer until a digital “Ping!” came out. “Alright, I need to check your ID, then you can come up see him.”

Davey looked into his wallet for his school’s ID, the lady inspecting it and giving Davey a visitor badge; after being informed of what room the teenager was being in, Davey once again practically ran towards it, even if it would have been faster if he just waited for the elevator; but he couldn’t wait, his heart pounding in his ears as he made his way to Bastian’s room.

Davey stopped in front of the room thinking his chest was going to simply explode, his breathing quick and ragged as he worked up the guts to open the door.

After some minutes the teenager used to calm himself down, Davey slowly grabbed the doorknob, opening the door very slowly, realizing until the moment he opened the door that it was pretty rude and that he should have knocked instead.

 

“Ah… I-I’m sorry. Should have knocked…” he said softly, still not looking at the contents of the room. “I’m sorry if I… interrupted” It wasn’t until then that he actually looked inside the room.

“Hey, Davey…” said a weak voice, coming from the bed placed in the center of the room. Davey gulped when he saw Bastian’s form resting in the mattress.

Bastian was incredibly bruised, sporting a right black eye, scrapes and red around his face; however the most prominent thing was the big cut on his cheek, the edges of it being a raw pink color that made Davey far too uncomfortable. His arms were bandaged, his left arm being even more than his other arm. The usually energetic teenager seemed so tired, bags under his eyes (which were red, he probably had been crying for hours), his normally ridiculous wolverine hair was missing, instead it was down and messy, like it was wet not too long ago. There were still traces of dried blood on the teenager’s face, Davey felt guilty at the sight of his best friend.

“What’s up?” he asked, trying to be cheerful but Bastian’s voice was just too full of exhaustion, it seemed like he was doing his best to not fall asleep.

“Davey…” a female voice said; it was Bastian’s mother, sitting in a couch right next to her son’s bed; she seemed like a mess as well, her face red and puffy from all the crying she had done the previous night. Apart from them the room was empty, Bastian’s father just having taken all his brothers to their home for they to rest, Davey had just entered the room when Bastian was alone with his mother. It didn’t seem like he interrupted anything, Bastian being barely able to stay awake.

“Good morning, Mrs. Nightingale…” Davey said softly, not sure what to answer.

“I didn’t expect you to come until after school…” the woman said, her voice happy yet exhausted as well.

“I, uh, I couldn’t wait.” The brunette scratched the back of his head. She nodded, and they fell silent until Bastian spoke, barely hearable.

“Davey… sorry for not answering to your texts last night.”

Davey felt a shock of guilt form in his stomach when his friend said this, not believing that Bastian could apologize for such a ridiculous thing in a moment like this.

“It’s- it’s okay, Bas. I understand.” Davey said, as he approached Bastian’s bed with slow steps.

There was a knock on the door, a grey haired man in a doctor robe entering the room.

“Good morning. How did you sleep?” The man asked Bastian, who smiled weakly at the man. “I slept alright, but I still feel exhausted.”

The man nodded, his eyes traveling to Bastian’s mother.

“Mrs. Nightingale? Can we speak on private?”

“Yes, yes. Davey, do you mind if I leave you here for some minutes? It won’t be long…”

“Oh, not at all.” The teenager replied, the woman leaving the room quietly and closing the door behind her.

Davey shuffled awkwardly on place as he sat down next to Bastian’s bed. It was way too disturbing, Bastian was so always fun of life, so talkative… to see him confined in a bed barely awake, so exhausted- it was unnatural.

“…I’m sorry.” Davey finally said, his eyes focusing on the carpet of the room.

“For what?”

“For-for leaving you; this wouldn’t have happened if I didn’t leave you in the mall.” Davey’s voice began to break, his mouth shaking as he spoke. “I-I didn’t even think for a moment what-what may have happened, and it _happened_ , I-I’m so sorry, Bastian, I-“

“Davey,” Bastian interrupted, his voice still exhausted. “If you have been there, then maybe you would have died instead. Maybe we would be both dead at this point.”

Davey began to cry silently as Bastian kept speaking, not being able to control himself anymore.

“I-I should have been there, I should have-“

“It’s not your fault.”

 _It isn’t my fault,_ Davey thought to himself, but no matter how many times he said that, he would still feel as if he was there, as if he didn’t leave nothing would have happened. If he had stayed around, him and Bastian would be at school at this moment, he wouldn’t be laying on a hospital bed with broken bones and cuts on his face.

If he hadn’t insisted on taking him to the skate park…

Davey let out a soft sobbing noise, covering his face with his hand as tears continued to drop; the teenager wanted to hug Bastian but he knew that he would just hurt him even more, resigning to bury his face against the sheets in the mattress unable to hold his tears. He began to sob against the sheets, sobbing about everything that had happened in the past months.

Parker’s death, Bastian’s almost death- everything was just too much for him, he couldn’t hold it anymore.

Bastian put his less injured hand on Davey’s back, rubbing it softly letting his friend cry it all out.

“I-I thought you-I thought you were-“ Davey couldn’t even finish the sentence, his sobbing preventing him from speaking.

“Its okay, Davey.” Said Bastian softly. “I’m okay, don’t worry about me.”

Davey continued to cry on the sheets, being comforted by his friend.

 

\---

 

“Noah called me earlier today; apparently there are reports of a survivor of the Sovereign city killer.” Samantha leaned to Parker and Chainey, currently sitting on the kitchen table as they were eating reheated kidneys to start the day with.

“Huh? That’s… odd.” Said Parker, staring at the woman with disbelief at the news.

“Wait, doesn’t this guy, you know, brutally murders all his victims and then eats them up and stuff?” Chainey interjected as well with the same confusion.

“Yeah, can’t this guy be just some other guy that wanted to scare some people?”

“The description of the kidnapper was: short like a child, a black hoodie with cat ears, and the smell of blood and cat piss.”

Parker eyes widened, dropping his spoon on the plate creating a small blood stain on the table. That was definitely him, alright. That was the guy that shoved him from the roof a couple of days ago. Then why did he suddenly decide to let some guy leave?

“Is… there more information? Does the news know about this? Something like this would appear on the morning broadcast, why isn’t it being aired?”

“I don’t know, I assume Lazaro maybe has something to do with it.” Samantha shrugged.

“Gee, that guy really does have power over everything around him, doesn’t he?” Chainey wondered, shoving a spoonful of guts to his mouth. The less he thought about it as someone’s organs, the less horrible it was.

“Why, though? I mean, what would make him let one live? Isn’t that super counterproductive?” Parker wondered aloud. But, again, whoever the killer was seemed to just do things as he liked it; he seemed very unpredictable in general. Who is to say that wasn’t planned at all?

“Do we know who the guy is? Maybe he doesn’t kill certain people at all?” Chainey asked.

“Mm, I don’t think so; he has killed children before, and this guy is just a random student from high-school, it seems. Below average student, Noah said his name was… Nigel? Nighting? Um…” Samantha scratched her head as she tried to remember. “He had some sort of comic book name… Ah! Yes, Bastian Nightingale.”

 

Parker eyes widened, his gaze falling to his bowl half-full of human meat. Chainey kept talking with Samantha, trying to find out if there is any reason of why the killer would have left him alive, but Parker wasn’t listening at all, the voices seemed to be very far away from him, they sounded more like buzzing than anything.

He could hear his deep breaths, his head buzzing as Parker realized he was shaking uncontrollably as he stared at his palms.

“…Peej?” Samantha asked; Parker turned at her with very wide eyes, his lips shaking as he stared at his friend. “PJ? What’s wrong? Are you okay?” Chainey asked, unsure of what was happening at all.

“I-“ Parker said, stopping midsentence as the room began to spin around him.

Without saying anything else, he stood up in a hurry, not realizing he was running towards the exit of the warehouse. He couldn’t remember exactly how, but Parker ended up in the outside of the warehouse, the soft light and the birds chirping being ignored by him as he kneeled on the ground shaking.

Parker’s breath became even more frantic as he noticed something lying just at the outside of the warehouse entrance; crawling towards it in fours Parker reached the strange shiny object; it was Bastian’s student ID covered in blood splatters, and the back it said:

_“Maggot Boy! Guess who I found!”_

It was written with blood.

 

“Oh,” Parker said, clutching the ID with his shaky fingers covering himself with the crusted blood. “Oh god, oh please no…” he buried the ID on his chest, curling in a ball with his forehead pressed against the warm concrete, shaking uncontrollably as he kept whispering to himself.

“PJ?! Peej!” Samantha and Chainey ran outside to where Parker was lying, shivering and sobbing; they had no idea what to do.

“Parker…?” Chainey came forward, placing a hand on the teenager’s shoulder, the brunette feeling the cold hand touching him, his mind jumped back at her, at _Marianne_ , and her voice.

_Parker? Parker?_

Everything went dark.

 

\---

 

He woke up back in his room under layers of thin sheets covering up to his chest. The teenager woke up in intervals, going in and out of consciousness every minute or so, he felt several hours passed before he actually fully woke up. Rubbing his temple, Parker sat on his bed as he remembered what had just happened; to verify this Bastian’s ID was at the side of his bed as a morbid reminder of his life.

Parker stared at it for several minutes, going back to bed and crawling under the sheets, coldly staring at the wall for hours. He couldn’t sleep, his mind shouting several things at once refusing to let him sleep.

“Parker? Are you awake?” Samantha opened the door slightly, entering the room with the small teenager. She realized he was definitely awake, but he didn’t move no matter how much she called to him.

“PJ… talk to me. I can help you, we can help you. Chainey and me are going to try our best to help you, but you need to talk to us…”

Parker shifted slightly under the sheets, but he still didn’t face her.

“You can’t help.” He answered coldly.

“You don’t know that. We will try our best to-“

“You, you can’t help.” He repeated.

Samantha stayed silent, her eyes traveling to the ID lying in the wooden box used as bed furniture; she bit her lip knowing that she needed to get Parker to talk.

“Who is he?” Samantha asked, softly.

Parker stayed silent minutes, shuffling under the covers as he answered again to Samantha.

“I should be dead.”

“Do you mean when that guy shoved you from the roof?”

“When the truck hit me, I should have died.”

He covered himself even more, his face half hidden in the sheets.

“I died, but even so I’m still here for some reason. I thought maybe I could just start new. Forget about everything when I was alive, and have a new life.”

Parker’s lips began to shake. “I- I didn’t want to get anybody I know involved. When I knew I wasn’t really dead, I wanted to go and tell my mother, my father…”

He stopped, trying to calm himself. “Do you know I have a brother?”

Samantha shook her head. “No, you never told me that.”

“I have a brother. He _had_ a brother.”

“Parker…”

“That guy, the one that Aware kidnapped, he- he is my friend. Was. Before I died.”

 _More than a friend to me,_ he thought, but Parker bit his tongue to prevent himself from saying it.

“And now, the aware; he knows who I am. He knows who are close to me. He did it because he knew it would hurt me. He-“ The teenager couldn’t speak anymore, his sobs drowning every sound that tried to escape from his mouth. Samantha approached him, gently rubbing his shoulders as she tried to calm him down, but Parker respectfully requested her to leave. Samantha didn’t want to leave him alone, but she obliged wanting to give her friend the space to cry it out.

Hours later, Parker was still locked in his room, unmoving. There was a knock on the door, this time the one entering being the tall teenager with multicolored hair; Chainey got close to the bed at first thinking that Parker had fallen asleep, but he was wide awake.

“Hey…” Chainey greeted, trying to catch Parker’s attention.

“Hey.” Replied the brunette in a sad tone.

They both stayed silent, Parker having no intention to talk and Chainey not exactly sure how to try to talk to him.

“I’m sorry about your friend.” He finally said, sincerity on his voice.

“Thanks.”

Silence once again, Chainey felt uncomfortable but he didn’t want to force Parker to speak if he didn’t want to; after all the reason he was even there was to try and help the teenager.

“Chainey…”

He perked up at the mention of his name, his eyes locking on the figure still lying on the bed.

“Yeah?”

“Why are you so… unbothered about this?” Asked Parker, more curious than angered.

“About, about your friend? Parker, I’m really sorry it happened-“

“No, no.” the brunette interrupted as he slightly shifted under the covers. “I mean, being dead in general. It didn’t take you long to get used to the fact that you were dead. It took you a short time to adapt to eating human flesh. Why?”

“It…” Chainey sighed, not sure if his answer was a good excuse; it worked for him, but he didn’t actually stop and think if it was the right thing to feel. “I don’t have any reference to being alive.”

Now Parker stayed silent out of embarrassment, feeling terrible at the question. “…Sorry.”

“No, it’s okay. We all have our… our ‘things’.” The tone of voice he used made Parker believe he was referring personal problems more than anything; but he was right. Parker didn’t even stop to think how terrible it was for Chainey to just wake up one day and realize you are dead in a place that hates you for not staying dead; he had been thinking too much about himself and the killer he completely forgot about Chainey’s feelings.

“Do you think he will hurt him again?”

Chainey needed no explanation to know who Parker was talking about; he got closer to Parker’s bed, but not too close to respect his private space.

“Maybe he will try,” Chainey said with a firm voice. “But we will stop him.”

Parker sighed heavily. “Do you promise?”

“I promise.”


	13. Go all the Way

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Heh Peej, you are basically like a superhero right now, you know?” Joked Chainey, twiddling with the metal bat on his hands.  
> “What? No.” Parker answered surprised at the mention. “Come on, I’m just doing what’s right”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Davey meets with someone he hasn't seen in a while, Bastian learns what true fear is, and Parker learns about monsters.

News about what had happened to the football’s captain Bastian Nightingale traveled across the school very fast, Davey was slightly surprised he had to admit; he was even there when the teenager received a big bouquet of flowers (courtesy of the school’s cheerleaders), it was to be expected, after all Bastian was one of the most popular individuals in school (even if he himself was oblivious to it).

The next morning at school the brunette was immediately greeted by a horde of students, cornering him trying to get him to tell them what exactly happened and about Bastian’s condition.

“Is he okay?”

“Is it true that he was kidnapped?”

“I heard he lost an eye. Did he lose an eye?”

“I heard the killer pulled his teeth out.”

“Is it true that he chopped off his fingers?”

Davey could feel vertigo as the students kept asking him several morbid questions about his friend’s condition, until teachers managed to pull them all out of the way.

“Alright kids, moving on. You all have classes to attend, and seriously I would have expected you to not trust any playground rumors. Move on, move on.”

Davey was incredibly grateful to the teacher, who simply nodded at him sympathetically. He used to be the student every teacher would complain about, but these days it just seemed like they all pitied him. As long as it meant they would be off his back, Davey didn’t care at all.

 

The rest of the day had been pretty lonely for the teenager, even if he had friends among the other students Davey still didn’t feel much like socializing which surprisingly everybody respected, apart from the random girl that would ask him if Bastian was okay. After the bell rang ending the last class, Davey slung his backpack in one shoulder making his way out of the school; he had visiting Bastian in mind, but the own victim’s mother asked him to give them time, that she and her husband and their children wanted to have some alone time with Bastian; Davey obliged, after all his family would want to be with him now more than ever.

Davey was very engrossed on his own thinking, not even realizing the small teenager following him close behind trying to decide how to approach him.

“Um, Davey?”

Davey turned around expecting some random student wanting to ask about his friend, but instead he found someone he actually hadn’t seen in a very long time.

 

“Micah?”

The short teenager was standing behind Davey, bags under his eyes and his normally neat hair messy, the teen was already pretty slim but Davey could have sworn that Micah was even more famished than before; he was a mess.

“Sorry, I…”

Davey felt guilt; he didn’t know Micah that much apart that he was his brother’s best friend. He saw him at the funeral, but Davey was so preoccupied with his own problems that he didn’t even consider how Micah could have felt, and it seemed like he wasn’t doing too well on that front.

“I haven’t seen you in a while.” Micah replied. He sounded so… different. Davey knew him to be the sarcastic kind of guy that mouths off to everybody, but to hear him so passive was disturbing to Davey.

“Sorry about that. I’ve been… kinda busy.”

“I just wanted to know how you’ve been doing.” Micah said. The brunette could tell that it took a lot of guts for Micah to just go up to him and ask him how he was doing, he wasn’t the type of person that let people know he cared. Well, that was before the accident anyways.

“I’m okay,” Davey replied, feeling the awkwardness in the air. “How have you’ve been?”

“I’m,” Micah hesitated. “I’m okay.”

 _Liar_ , thought Davey, but he couldn’t blame Micah. After all, he had refused to talk to anyone for weeks, he couldn’t imagine how it was for Micah.

“…so yeah, sorry for bothering you, I’ll get going.”

He turned around, ready to go to his own home but Davey still felt guilt lingering at the bottom of his stomach; he bit his lip as he pondered, he wasn’t going to do much today anyways.

“Hey, Micah?” he called, the small teenager turning around slightly surprised.

“Want to grab a burger?”

 

Davey didn’t know Micah that well apart from the fact that he talked a lot and that he was very sarcastic, which made it even stranger for him that the teenager sitting in front of him was the complete opposite; Micah had been silent for most of the time and he seemed very tired.

It actually took a while for Davey to notice that Micah’s right cheek had a pretty bad bruise on it, almost faded out. Davey took a bite of his burger as he pointed with a messy finger to the teen’s cheek. “Hey, did you fall?”

Micah eyes widened as he cupped his own cheek, mouth slightly open.

“I, uh-“ he bit his lip, getting flustered as he faced away from Davey. “I didn’t- I…”

Davey eyes widened as he slowly realized it. “Alan did that to you, didn’t he?”

Micah’s face reddened in embarrassment, slowly nodding still facing away from Davey.

“Oh, that _fucker_ ” Davey stood up almost knocking down his glass of soda on the table, startling the younger teenager in front of him. “I’ll kill him, I swear I’ll kill him.”

“Davey, it’s okay-“

“It is not okay! What kind of sick fuck does that? What kind of asshole just goes and bullies someone’s whose friend- whose _brother-_ “

Davey punched the table as hard as he could, his knuckles slightly opening at the stone’s table and leaving specks of blood.

“ _Fuck,”_ He grabbed his fist as pain shoot through his arm; luckily he didn’t break his hand or needed stitches, the scar on his other arm being an ugly reminder that he needed to keep his anger in check. “I just- fuck, I’m sorry Micah, I-“

“He is a fucking asshole.” Micah’s voice seeped with anger, Davey facing the teenager surprised at his sudden anger.

“He just fucking-“ Micah bared his teeth, his hands shakily grasping his glass of soda as he stared it down. “He laughed, you know? He said, ‘Do you miss your girlfriend?’, and he just-“

Micah’s hands shook with rage as the glass crumbled on his hands, his palms getting small slices with the shards as the liquid spilled on the table.

“Oh, fuck.” Davey said as he grabbed napkins and inspected Micah’s hands, helping him with taking the shards out of his skin.

“If it makes you feel better, I have the same problem,” Davey said, as he plucked all the glass shards out of the teenager’s palms. “With the anger, you know.”

 “Yeah, I’ve noticed.” Davey couldn’t help but smile slightly when the sarcasm in Micah’s voice returned, it was far more natural for him.

“Listen, I’ll deal with Alan and his crew of morons, right? Don’t worry about it.”

“You don’t have to.”

“Oh, but I want to. I have unfinished business with those assholes.”

Micah nodded slightly, as if he wasn’t sure that was a good idea. Davey felt sorry for the teenager, his mind jumping to Parker.

“Micah,” Davey said, scratching the back of his head as he could still feel the awkwardness around them. “I’m sorry I forgot about you. It… was rude of me.”

“No, I get it- after what happened I didn’t want to intrude…”

He still felt guilty, however. As far as he knew, Parker was the only friend Micah had, and he had to deal with bullies as well.

“Look… if you want to talk about anything, don’t- don’t be afraid to ask, okay?”

Man, he wasn’t good at this ‘talking’ stuff.

Micah smiled slightly, nodding softly.

“Yeah… okay.”

 

\---

 

“I’ll have to go for a second, alright sweetie?”

“Mmhm” Bastian said groggily to his mother, shifting slightly on his sleep as his mother left the room, leaving the teenager alone on the hospital room. It was midnight, the room being slightly alit with the lamp at the side of his bed.

He woke up with a jolt when a loud bang could be heard in the window of the room; his eyes wide he turned to face the window. It was open, but he couldn’t remember if it was that way before, he had been asleep for most of the day.

Bastian figured that it had been his imagination; the doctors having told him he would be very jumpy and paranoid for a long time.

The teenager shifted under his sheets as he closed his eyes to go back to sleep, the sounds of his breathing and the wind blowing the only sounds on the room.

 

“Hey Bastian.”

 

Bastian woke up in a jolt, his instinct telling him to run away as fast as he could but his broken ribs didn’t let him, falling on the floor instead slamming his body hard against the carpet. His entire body screamed in pain, he felt the stitches on his arm hurting and his legs burn.

Hissing in pain, the teenager tried to prop himself up with his elbows, but it his entire body still hurt.

“Aw, not even a hello?”

Bastian tried to scream but his voice wouldn’t come out, his heart beating so fast he thought it would explode as his body began to shake; he turned his body around to face the teenager standing over him.

“Huh, you look so much better without that stupid wolverine hairstyle.”

“What… what do you want?” Bastian asked with shaky breaths, trying as hard as possible to not pass out.

“Oh come on, can’t some guy just visit his friend in the hospital? Don’t be so rude.”

Owen looked around the room, walking over the side of the bed with many bouquets of flowers and balloons.

“See? I told you people would care if you suddenly died!” Owen said, knocking on one of the vases with his hand, it crashing and shattering on the floor. “Imagine how many flowers you would have gotten if you actually died?” He crushed the flowers with his shoes. “How predictable.”

Bastian stared at the small teenager, his breathing heavy as he still tried to get up, but it was useless. His body didn’t let him, so he resorted to crawl to the room door.

“Hey, not so fast, pretty boy!” Owen said calmly, grabbing one of Bastian’s feet and dragging him across the carpet. “Come on, don’t go away! I just got here! That’s rude.”

Bastian hissed at the pain of being dragged around so carelessly by his feet, clawing at the soft carpet beneath him.

“Are you-“ Bastian grunted as his ribs throbbed in his torso. “finishing the- the job?”

“Nah,” Owen answered, dropping Bastian’s feet rather harsh against the carpet. Even if it was pretty soft it still hurt the teenager a lot, drowning a scream.

“I just wanted to make sure you wouldn’t forget about our little encounter, it’s all.”

Bastian closed his eyes as he hissed through his teeth, still feeling pain run across his body.

“Hard to forget, really.” He hissed through his teeth, his head pounding in pain.

“Ah, I’m so glad! We have some unfinished business, though.”

Owen leaned real close to Bastian’s face, the older teenager being forced to lay his head against the carpet to avoid full contact with his kidnapper.

“You aren’t going to get rid of me, you know?” He smiled with his chipped teeth, his breath smelling like dried blood; even if he was smiling Owen’s voice had a tone of anger to it. “Just because I didn’t kill you back there means that you are free to go.”

“I know what you look like. The cops will get you.” Bastian replied trying his hardest to not start crying out of sheer terror.

“Ahaha, oh wow. Are you serious Bas? I knew guys your kind were stupid, but I didn’t think you would be this stupid.” Owen got away from Bastian’s face, allowing the teenager to have some room to breathe.

“The police won’t do anything, Bas. I have killed people in broad daylight! I once lured this one guy behind a school, and killed him there, and didn’t even bother covering it up!” Owen seemed to be legitimately jovial at how pathetic the police force in Sovereign city was. “It’s like no matter what I do, they don’t even care.”

He chuckled, his smile going wide as he locked eyes with Bastian.

“Besides, you won’t do that.”

Bastian breathed heavily. “And why is that?”

“Davey Jones.”

 

Bastian’s eyes got wide, his scowl disappearing as his eyebrows slightly arched while his face paled.

“That’s right Bastian, I know about you and your friends, your family, all your siblings. I bet you wish you weren’t that popular now, don’t you?”

Bastian covered his mouth with his palm, his lips shaking as he started to realize the gravity of the situation. “But you don’t have to worry about them, right? I mean, you won’t say anything to anyone after all!”

“I…”

“Good! We have an understanding, then.” Owen began walking towards the open window, crouching down to pass through it. “See ya later in school, Bas! I’ll be waiting!”

With that, Owen got out of the room by climbing down the window leaving Bastian lying with his back against the carpet. His body screamed in pain, but Bastian was far more preoccupied with other things to realize how much it actually hurt, Owen’s word echoing through his head as he tried his best to not start crying.

The door creaked open first slowly, then with a slam when the figures on the hallway rushed to the teenager lying on the floor.

“Bastian! What happened? Are you okay?!” his mother asked as she and the doctor ran to his side, the teenager still in shock from what happened minutes before.

“I…” He bit his lip, his heart pounding as nurses entered the room to help him up.

“I had a nightmare.”

 

\---

 

About a week had passed since Owen kidnapped Bastian, a week without anyone being murdered. Even so, Parker and Chainey continued to scout the city on both day and night, taking turns and being as effective as possible to find the killer. Bastian was out of the hospital (“Thank you, Facebook”) and ever since then Parker had asked Chainey to keep an eye on him, but Chainey’s narcolepsy made it difficult for the tall teenager to do so.

After a week, Parker and Chainey started their normal scouting as they were about to separate in one alley.

“Okay,” Said Parker, adjusting his hoodie and his surgical mask. Even though the city was pretty much barren at that point Parker didn’t need some camera taking a picture of his uncovered face. The last thing he needed was his face all over the internet.

“I’ll go to the north, you scout the south. We’ll see in this point in two hours, if anything happens we’ll call each other, alright?” Parker grabbed his tire iron firmly with his hand; Chainey carried a metal bat Samantha had in her possessions, she didn’t mind giving it to the young Aware with the purpose of beating the killer to ‘death’; Chainey wasn’t sure if he was even capable of doing such a thing but Parker had insisted that it was for his own safety; they couldn’t afford to be unprepared.

“Heh Peej, you are basically like a superhero right now, you know?” Joked Chainey, twiddling with the metal bat on his hands.

“What? No.” Parker answered surprised at the mention. “Come on, I’m just doing what’s right”

“That’s what superheroes do, though.”

“Well, yeah but, I’m not a superhero. Superheroes are… well, you know, cool. I’m not cool!” If he could, he would be flustering at the moment, the idea that he could be as something as awesome and noble as a superhero was ridiculous to him.

“Well, the internet thinks otherwise, Maggot Boy!”

“Oh shut up Groot,” Parker chuckled at Chainey’s confused face. “He is like, a talking tree that is pretty big. So basically like you.”

“Hey, rude!” Chainey laughed, playing around with his metal bat.

“Alright, let’s go man. See you here in about two hours.”

Saying that, Parker ran to the emergency stairs of one of the buildings, rapidly climbing up as he made his way to the top; Chainey put his metal baseball bat around his belt, as he began to go to the opposite direction Parker had climbed to.

 

\---

 

About an hour and half had passed ever since Chainey and Parker split up, Chainey having climbing buildings and sneakily trying to find anything too suspicious. He knew that the killer wasn’t such a sneaky individual, liking to do his kills in places where anyone could stumble upon the body rather than doing it in dark alleys and such, Chainey was sure that if killer was around he would immediately know.

Grabbing his phone, the teenager checked the clock in the glass screen, making sure of how much time had passed. 15 minutes left until he and Parker met once again.

Looking around he decided to call it a night, it wouldn’t help at all if he got delayed for anything. He began to climb down on one of the emergency stairs of the abandoned building he was on, the clang of is feet the only thing audible in the quiet night.

 

Chainey was making his way down the stairs when a hand grabbed his, pulling him up to the roof once again and slamming the thin teenager down the rooftop; Chainey felt the air being knocked out of him as he kept being dragged violently on the rooftop, stopping when whoever was dragging him stomped his feet on top of Chainey’s chest.

“Hngh!” Chainey grunted, the kick making it hard for him to speak and forcing him to look up at his attacker.

“Hello!” the small teenager saluted, Chainey suddenly realizing that the attacker had his metal bat between his palms. “Oh, you were going down? My mistake, I thought you wanted to go up!” He stared down at Chainey. “My fault.”

Chainey jolted himself up, throwing the small teenager off his balance and dropping his bat, Chainey running to retrieve it only for Owen to kick it to the other side of the rooftop.

“Hey, not fair!” Owen kicked Chainey on the back of his calves, throwing him off balance and knocking the back of his head against the concrete. “Come on Chainey, all this time and this is how you treat me?”

Chainey’s eyes went wide at the mention of his name. How could he know his name? It was the first time he ever saw the guy. That is, as far as he knew.

“What, you look like you’ve seen a ghost or something.” Owen replied, Chainey’s lips shaking as he couldn’t understand what was happening.

“Oh,” Owen replied, grinning in delight at the current events. “Oh my lord, don’t tell me you don’t remember!” he began to laugh, walking towards the metal bat he had thrown around as Chainey couldn’t do anything but stare trying to _remember_.

“Makes sense, that big hole on the back of your head and all. Can’t be good for your memory, eh Chainey?” He played with the bat, using it to tap the rooftop.

“Did you kill me?” Chainey dared to ask, slowly getting up towering over the small teenager quite easily but still feeling very small compared to him.

“Huh, who knows?” Owen pondered, his eyes inspecting the bat’s surface. “I can’t seem to remember. Maybe if I kill you now, I’ll remember!”

Owen swung his bat as hard as possible towards Chainey who stumbled backwards avoiding to get hit, the metal bat missing him by centimeters prompting Owen to throw the bat to the teenager’s face and succeeding.

Chainey felt a strange numbing sensation on his face as he felt Owen tackling him on the stomach, slamming them both against the ground with force. “Chainey, you are certainly different! You don’t say that maybe losing your memories changed you?”

Owen grabbed Chainey’s face forcefully as he twisted the teenager so the tall one would face the ground, shoving his face against the concrete of the floor.

“Come on, Chainey. For old time’s sake! Make your friend Owen proud!” Owen hissed between teeth as he slammed Chainey’s face again and again against the rooftop, slightly smearing the concrete with blood.

“O-Ow-e-en?” Chainey spoke spitting rubble and dirt, his vision darkening as Owen stopped.

“Yes! Owen! Don’t you remember me?! Don’t you fucking remember me at all?!” Owen screamed, digging his nails on Chainey’s scalp.

“Maybe the next time you die you’ll remember it all.” Owen grabbed the bat once again, raising it to the air ready to strike Chainey’s head with it.

 

Before he could strike Owen was tackled to the ground by Parker, the two figures rolling around the rooftop coming to a halt at the edge of the roof. Parker quickly jumped to his feet to face Owen, who was already making his way to the next building.

In a panic, Parker threw his tire iron to the runner hitting him square in the legs causing him to crash into his own face. Parker ran to him, retrieving his tire iron as he was ready to begin to beat the living shit out of Owen, but the smaller teenager turned on his back putting his hands up as he smiled.

“Whoa whoa whoa! Hold on your damn pants! Can’t we discuss this like civilized people?”

“Really? You don’t seem civilized enough.”

“Wow, rude PJ! Very rude.” For some reason, Owen was still smiling even if his face was red with the rubble from the ground.

“Come on man, I just want to talk, can’t we do that?”

“We could if you weren’t murdering people all the time.” Parker hissed.

“Come on, a week has passed and I haven’t killed anyone, shouldn’t that prove that I changed my heart?” Owen put his own palms on his chest, blood spilling from his lip.

“…What do you want?”

“A proposition, of sorts.”

Parker lowered the tire iron slightly, legitimately confused at the suggestion.

“What makes you think I will accept anything coming from you?”

“Wow Peej, has anyone told you how cute you are when you get angry?”

“Get to the point.”

“Peej, we are basically the same, you and I. Small, ridiculous, need to eat human meat in order to not become a total monster… you catch my drift.” Owen made hands movements as he remained with his back on the ground, Parker staring at him careful that he wouldn’t make any sudden movements. “Do we really need to fight? We do have the same needs here, after all.”

“I’m not like you.” Parker barked.

“Aren’t you, really? Unless you are some kind of weird juju marvel, I bet you had to eat some human flesh so we could have this conversation, how does that make that any different from what I do?”

“You murder people!” Parker screamed in anger, his grip on the tire iron tightening.

“Oh come on Parker, aren’t the limbs and organs you eat from people as well? What makes it okay for you to do it? That you feel bad while doing it?” Owen seemed to be genuine with his upset over how Parker had replied to him. “Do you say ‘sorry mister John!’ before you chomp off his organs? Do you cry yourself to sleep every night all ‘boohoo, my life fucking sucks’?”

“Fuck off you little-“

“Come on Parker. I know you don’t trust those fuckers from the Institution. You don’t have to put up with them.”

Owen wasn’t smiling, he was more expectant of Parker’s answer at the moment, having a very light scowl.

“We don’t have to be alone.”

Parker stayed silent for several minutes, his eyes wide inspecting Owen and suddenly bursting in laughter.

“You are a monster, you know that right?” Parker stopped laughing as Owen began to scowl, Parker angers spilling from him, his hands shaking as he still held the tire iron tightly.

“I’m not like you, you are a murderer and I want nothing to do with you!” Parker shook his head. “I need to stop you.”

“Fine. Whatever, Peej.” Owen put his hands up in a sign of irritation as he looked away. “This is a fight you won’t win.”

“Oh, try me.”

Parker swung the tire iron to the fallen teenager, but Owen managed to grab it with his palms stopping the metal from hitting him; the two began to have a tugging war with the tire iron struggling for several seconds until Owen simply let go of it provoking Parker to fall off his back, giving Owen an opportunity to run away.

“Don’t you dare!” Parker yelled as he began to chase the teenager, jumping through a couple of roofs before he realized that Owen had managed to scurry away to god knows where.

“Fuck!” Parker yelled, throwing the tire iron to the floor harshly making a loud clang. Scratching his head, he realized that he actually hadn’t seen Chainey ever since he decided to tackle Owen.

It took him a couple of minutes to get back to the roof they were originally on, a passed out Chainey laying on the floor with blood gently seeping out of his face.

“Chainey, oh shit…” Parker approached him, turning the Aware to his back to inspect the damage on his face.

Small cuts and bruises appeared on Chainey’s face, pebbles and dirt impregnated in the teenager’s cheeks as he peacefully slept; at that point Parker had no idea if he had fainted due to the attack or if was his narcolepsy hitting at the worst time possible.

“Chainey? Chainey wake up, I’m not going to drag you to the warehouse again.”

But Chainey simply snored.

“God _damnit”_

 

 

 


	14. Maneater

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Owen had managed to outrun them once again, and he would go back to killing in no time. Parker didn’t feel like a superhero, he felt like a complete failure for not being able to stop the strings of murders, putting more people at risk.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bastian tries to learn how to cope, Parker feels guilty and Owen can't wait to have his fun.

_“I just wanted to make sure you wouldn’t forget about our little encounter, it’s all.”_

Bastian woke up in a jolt as the alarm on his phone rang, cold sweat dripping off his forehead as his heart pounded on his chest. It took him several seconds to calm down, turning to his phone with wide eyes as he shakily grabbed it to turn it off.

He lay on his bed once again, covering his eyes with his arm as his breaths calmed down. He did not want to get up, his body screamed at him that it was not a good idea to get up and go to school, but Bastian desperately wanted it all to be normal again, he wanted to be able to go and play out his day as if nothing had happened. He refused to live in fear.

Doctors had recommended him to take some days off, but as soon as Bastian was out of the hospital he insisted he needed to go to school, the teenager feeling that the best thing for him was to simply live his life as if nothing had happened.

 

Bastian struggled to do the easiest things, even getting up from his bed being exhausting for the teenager, but he had the will to keep going. Pushing Owen out of his mind, Bastian got ready for school, his mother offering him a ride but he refused (“It’s ten minutes in foot, mom”), feeling that he needed to do this on his own.

As soon as he got out of his house Bastian felt the warm light over his skin, not having the privilege to go outside ever since That happened. His body still slightly hurt and if he moved too fast his ribs would complain. But it was okay, he needed to move on.

He continued to scream to himself that he was okay, and that he needed to be okay, but he felt something creep on his back with every step he took, every passing car making him flinch as his body was still in an alert state. Without realizing Bastian had already thought of twenty escape routes he could take if someone was to suddenly pull him from behind, feeling small fingers over his back, trying to take him away.

It took him about fifteen minutes to reach his school, but it felt like hours to the teenager who simply couldn’t stop thinking about those fingers, Owen’s face as he simply stared him down.

 

Vertigo took over him, leaning on the nearest wall gasping as his eyes began to focus once again and realizing that he was actually inside the school.

Bastian looked around as he whipped the sweat off his forehead, nobody seemed to actually be paying attention to him. Good, he thought, the last thing he needed was people seeing him in his current panicked state.

He walked through the hallways as he tried to calm himself down, but the sea of students didn’t help. Students and teachers walked around, some glancing at him and whispering between themselves, dark figures creeping on the corner of his eyes as he felt the fingers crawl down his back once again, through his hair, the sharp burn of his face and arm appearing once again.

The gasping appeared again, feeling how his chest contracted and yet Bastian refused to stop moving, he needed to get to class, he needed to go back to normal, he needed, he needed to-

_“You aren’t going to get rid of me, you know?”_

Chills went down his spine as the teenager felt his knees going weak, having to hold himself from some lockers to prevent himself from falling to the floor.

He flinched when he felt arms touching his arm helping him up to a standing position, Bastian immediately turning towards whoever it was that touched him.

“You okay, man?” Davey said; his grip firm as he seemed to understand what was happening.

“Y-yes. I-I, damn.” Bastian replied shakily, barely being able to get up as Davey made sure he was okay. He could feel the stares from the other students, but Bastian didn’t care at this point, he felt like he was burning.

“Come on man, let’s get out of here.” Davey calmly said, helping Bastian in his panicked state to the outside of the building.

 

“Why did you come here? You should have stayed home and take some days. Anybody would have understood.” Davey chucked a rock to the pond in front of them, the rock skipping easily on the water surface.

“I don’t know,” Bastian said, drinking from a soda can that Davey bought for him. He felt pathetic, Davey having bought a bunch of sodas and potato chips for both of them to have. “I just wanted to go back to normal.”

“Dude, stop forcing yourself to do this.” Davey threw another rock, skipping the water perfectly. “It’s going to take time. It isn’t healthy for you to do this.”

Bastian sighed frustrated, knowing that his friend was right; he forced himself to go back to normal too fast, he hadn’t realized it didn’t quite work like that.

“I just wanted to forget about it.”

“It’s… it’s not a thing you can forget easily, Bas.” Davey threw another stone, but this one sunk instead. “Things take time.”

“Yeah.” Bastian looked to the horizon, the clouds littering the blue sky. “I just… I don’t know.”

“I wish things were back to normal.” Bastian sighed, lying on the grass next to Davey, who turned his head towards him. “Before the accident.”

Davey painfully sighed, throwing a rock to the water surface once again. “Me too.”

The rock sank.

 

\---

 

“He said his name was Owen,” Chainey answered as he rubbed his fingers on top of the new stitches on his face. “He also… knows me?”

“What? Did he say something?” Parker sat opposite to Chainey, his knuckles bloodied and him being a general mess.

“No he just… said he knew me? I couldn’t remember anything, but he seemed pretty mad that I couldn’t remember him.”

“Did he… kill you?”

Chainey wasn’t surprised at Samantha’s question, after all he had asked himself that as well. “No, he didn’t exactly say no, but I don’t think he did it. He normally just tears people apart.”

“That’s true,” Parker chimed in, scratching his cheek. “Maybe he didn’t really know you personally.”

“I don’t know, it seemed like he hated me for not remembering who he was.”

“Chainey, he _hates_ everyone.” The teenager replied, leaving Chainey to ponder, slightly nodding agreeing with the sentiment “But we can’t rule out that maybe it was a personal attack.”

“So now what? Do you think he will go back to his murders?”

“Most likely…” Parker rubbed the back of his head in exasperation; Owen had managed to outrun them once again, and he would go back to killing in no time. Parker didn’t feel like a superhero, he felt like a complete failure for not being able to stop the strings of murders, putting more people at risk.

“We need to keep searching for this guy, we need to keep roaming the places with high concentration of people. He needs to know that he is being watched.” Parker rubbed his eyes. “I… we need to check on Bastian, too. I have the feeling that Owen had more in plan for him. Chainey, can you do that?”

The teenager blinked. “Are you going to scout the other areas alone?”

“What else can we do? It’s not like we have more people to search for the area.”

“I can help,” Samantha perked up. “I can go and scout areas to see if anything is up.”

“Sam, no,” Parker brow furrowed, shaking his head at the redhead suggestion.

“Parker, I can defend myself! I can-“

“Sam, no! This guy is an Aware, he has super strength and speed; he managed to outrun us both! I don’t want you to risk yourself. It’s safer if you stay here.”

“And what do you expect to do if you find Owen, then? Attack him on your own?”

Parker grunted, his gaze falling on the floor as he examined the tire iron still on his hands.

“I don’t know. But I must try! I can’t let that guy keep murdering people, I-I already failed twice stopping him, I need to make up for it.”

“You are going to get yourself killed, Parker.” Samantha sighed sadly, crossing her arms realizing she wouldn’t be able to convince Parker to let her help.

“I don’t even know if that’s possible at this point” the teenager chuckled awkwardly.

“I have to do this, Sam. It’s the least I could do.”

“I’ll talk to Noah, I’ll ask him if there is anything he can do about increasing security around malls and the like, tell him what you told me about Owen; see what he can do about it.”

“I’m going out, I won’t feel better until I scout around one more time.” He got up from his chair, getting his disguise ready as he began to walk towards the exit.

“I’m coming with you, Peej. Better in pairs, right?” replied Chainey as he followed closely.

“I’ll call Noah in the meantime.” Samantha said, Parker nodding slightly as he exited the warehouse, Chainey following him closely.

Exiting, Samantha sat on the couch, sighing, worried about Parker’s safety.

She pressed the buttons of her cellphone, bringing it to her ears.

“Noah? This is Sam…”

 

\---

 

Slurping sounds could be heard on the corner of the alley along meows as cats gathered around the alley waiting happily for their owner to finish his meal.

Owen licked his fingers, and then his palm making sure he consumed every single lick of blood. Finished, he looked to the husk of his most recent victim, some random man that dared to go for a random jog; Owen didn’t even feel bad, the guy was basically asking to be murdered.

He had wished the night had been more successful, but he had to admit he wasn’t sure what he was going to do if PJ had agreed with the deal; probably kill him anyways and then kill Chainey. He was unpredictable like that, not even he knew what he was going to do next.

The teenager shrugged. Having a rivalry with the oh so called superhero ‘Maggot Boy’ sounded like fun. So far killing without any real threat had been incredibly boring, at least now he had a challenge.

“Come on, guys.” Owen stood as he began to walk towards the street, ready to call it a night as he was followed by the herd of cats. “Time to head home.”

The teenager pulled a crumpled picture from his pant pocket, smiling widely as he did so. It was the picture Bastian was holding back when he attacked him, but the only thing that Owen was interested in was the small teenager standing in the picture.

PJ. PJ was probably the most exciting thing that had happened to Owen ever since he revived as an Aware.

“Oh, this will be reaaaaaaaaaaal fun.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is it for this one, folks! Don't worry, there will be most definetely a sequel, and it will be full of POWEN and Peanut Butter, loooooooooooooooots of it. So if you like sad teenagers, sad gay teenagers in love and zombies, keep an eye on it!!!!
> 
> Thank you and later!


End file.
